Star Trek Raven: Changing Realities
by Destinies Trek
Summary: December 21st, 2012. It was the day that the Raven launched...The day man kind took it's first steps into the stars, and...it was on that day that the Raven burned... Chapter 7 coming soon!
1. Tideless Squall

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Trek, or any character's or technologies therein, cannon or no.

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…2012, the beginning of the twenty-first century.

_"-Reactor operating at one hundred percent."_

Diplomacy is almost dead, and nearly all of the world's peoples are on the brink of war.

_"...All systems are on-line, and all stations report stand-by."_

On every continent, civilian militias are waging gorilla wars;

_"Disconnecting docking modules..."_

Shadow organizations kept secrete for years, and sometimes centuries, are on the move.

_"Helm, set orbital launch course. Bridge to engineering, stand-by to engage engines."_

Every government is struggling to keep their own peoples safe.

_"Energizing thrust capacitors..."_

Hence, a single person stood up, and said stop.

_"Chief, I'm detecting an overload in the system!"_

He had an idea to give the nations of the world a reason to trust each other again;

_"-Maxwell, what the hell are you doing?!"_

He forced them to work together, or to die apart.

_"Commander, stop what your doing or I'll shoot!"_

And they listened; they pulled their resources, and they constructed a vessel to travel at the speed of light.

_"He's tuned the over-load to route through the engine-core_

Their mission; its purpose seemed simple enough...

_"-A particle inversion-field has formed!! Hull breaches detected across the entire habitat rings!"_

To explore space, the final frontier--The reasons seemed innocent enough...

_"We're loosing containment integrity; the anti-matter containment seals are about to breach!"_

To expand their knowledge of the universe--The goals seemed noble enough...

_"Quantum rift detected; we're being pulled through the rift!"_

To unite the world for the greater good. If those where the reasons, then why were they did they have to punished for it...?


	2. Other Side of Eden

**Disclaimer:** Okay, here we are chapter two. Sorry for the wait, but that title just wasn't feeling right with what I had with the rest of the story, so as you've probably noticed, I changed... The ideas the same, I just didn't want to disappoint anyone later on down the story. Speaking of which, let's get this show on the road, shall we? I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein, cannon or no, so **DON'T SUE ME!!**

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_"Chief?"_ A distance voice said from out of the darkness.

_"Chief, are you okay?!"_ The voice shouted again. A wave of pain rushed over his whole body, as he became aware of the rest of his limbs.

"Ahh... Did ja' get the plate off of the bus that hit me?" He asked sarcastically as he sat up, rubbing his head were he felt his hair sticking to a wet spot. He looked around the cylindrical-shaped room, and noticed at least a dozen other people, both above him, and before him, checking on, what to him looked like crimson stumps, scattered along what most would consider the walls and the ceiling. He then looked back to the young woman whom was holding onto him, seeing if he needed any help. He took a long moment to give her a single one-over; noticing the bloody gash on her shoulder, and her lifeless arm hanging limp at her side.

"Are you okay to move?" She asked.

"I should be asking you that same question... Um-" He stopped as he tried to think of her name. Taking his hand down from his forehead, he noticed the red stain which had formed on his palm. Not noticing the crusting blood in his hand, she smiled.

"Cho," She finished for him. "Ensign Akai Cho, junior Beta-shift engineering assistant." He looked back to her smiling face; images of what had happened flooding back into him mind. He began visually searching the room frantically.

"Maxwell! Were the hell is that bastard?!" He asked. The ensign's smile dimmed slightly as her gripped on him tightened.

"I'm sorry Chief;" She moved herself to the other side of his vision, allowing him to see the other side of the engineering bay. "Lieutenant commander Maxwell is dead..." The Chief stared at the bloody corpse of their chief engineer, lying against the jagged edge of a twisted and torn support strut. Broken, metallic teeth sticking out from his neck down through his torso, and small burn crater on his side. He was struck speechless; a surge of pain and regret at the sight, knowing that it was his fault that he'd died. It was only when the overhead comm crackled to life that the young man was able to move.

_Erriiieee "Bridge to engineering, what's your statues!?"_ Although he cringed at the static-filled message, the Chief crawled up from the hallow where he'd landed, and manipulating the half-smashed station, opened his side of the channel.

"Engineering, Chief architect Feek here." He said. "We don't exactly know what happened yet, we're still picking up the pieces sir..." His eyes drifted over towards the core, giving it a quick visual inspection before forming his assessment. He then noticed the crewmen surrounding the core; all of them broken, and bloody... "The Chief engineer is dead, and we've suffered heavy casualties! We need a medic team down here as soon as possible!"

_"We have damage and hull breaches on the habitat-rings and else-where, and the communications system is partially disconnected--Do the best you can! We're trying to raise mission control, but their not responding..."_ Feek cringed at the report the captain had given him; just thinking about what could have caused so much damage in such a short amount of time caused his pulse to explode, sending a renewed surge of urgency rushing through his veins.

"Captain, do you helm control!?" He asked. Although several of the crew was watching him with alarmed interest, he ignored them as he hurriedly tried to restore operational control to the consol.

_The helm isn't responding up here, and for some reason the sensors seem to be blinded... The best _we_ can tell is that the engines are pumping out power at nearly one-hundred forty percent of maximum, we're traveling at about one point zero-six percent the speed of light and our speed it's increasing."_ The captain replied. Alarmed at what he was hearing, he checked his own readouts on the engines. _"We've got heavy damage up here Chief; can you shed some light on what's happening?"_ Just as quickly as he felt his body begin to burn with agitation, it froze at what he saw. He ran the test again, and again, and every time, he got the same response...

_"Chief? Are you still there?"_ The captain asked. The reached back up to the comm, and pressing the switch, he fought to keep voice calm as he spoke:

"Captain, is the main view screen up there working?" He asked.

_"Chief, what's going on-"_

"-Is the screen working captain!?" His voice cracking, the room as well as the comm fell deadly silent, as he awaited his answer.

_"No, the radiation filters were over-loaded in the initial blast--We're still trying to reset them."_

"I don't care if you have to blow an airlock, tell me what the hell is going on outside this ship; I need to know!" The Chief snapped. Panting through clenched teeth, he glanced back to the spherical reactor core at the center of the twin tubes that held it up. Although he couldn't see what was going on inside of the particle accelerator, he could imagine what was happening from all of his sensor readings.

_"Chief... I'm- I'm not sure the view screen properly reset itself..."_ Replied the captain, his voice hesitant.

"What does it look like?!"

_"It like a- I'm not really sure how to describe it... A Kaleidoscope maybe?"_ A chill ran down his spine as herd those words. Within an instant, a flurry of ideas began flying through his mind; none of them particularly invoked a sense of confidence in him.

_"Chief, what's happening? What is happening to my ship?"_ The calm in the captain's voice quickly evaporating, the Chief gulped as he steadied himself.

"The quantum rift...!" Said the ensign. Feek turned to glance at the young engineer. She swallowed hard, remaining silent as the entire room focused on her.

"Ensign?" He said. "What's wrong; I'm intrigued, continue..." Finding some courage, she took her hand, and activated the adjacent comm station.

"Captain, just before the explosion, we were detecting some kind of- quantum, rift forming out our particle acceleration field..." She paused for a second, obviously organizing, and double-checking her thoughts. "Sir, I think we've fallen through a tear in seam of sub-space--We're falling through a tare in the Universe!" The entire room fell silent as he finished. A thousand different scenarios played-out through her mind, but out of virtually everything she was seeing, this was the only explanation that fit.

_"Who is that?"_ Asked the captain. The Chief knew the face that the young ensign was making; it was the same face that he used to make when he first proposed his plan for his ship, the _Raven_, at the United Nations years ago.

"Ensign-"

"Ensign Akai Cho, sir... She's my--acting assistant." He shot her a reassuring glance, but he instead met with a hand, pulling him closer to her.

"Chief, what are you doing?!"

"Ensign there are some things you'll have to learn: One, is never to hesitate to voice an idea... And two," A sly grin began to spread across his chapped lips. "To know a good suggestion, and make sure it gets the proper attention." He sank into the damaged chair that wobbled as the loose bolts shifted from his weight.

"I agree with her assessment sir... And I think I may have an idea.

_"Chief, can you get us back out through that same tare?"_ He turned the thought over in his head for a long minute, then he began manipulating his consol again. Beside him, Cho was working her own station, but stopped for no apparent reason, and turned to him;

"Um, Chief, your schematics aren't in the database..." She said. Feek tried to pull up the schematics himself, but discovered that all of them had been encrypted by the chief engineer. He turned to the crowd.

"Ah, you!" He pointed to the least bloody person in the room. "Go into the chief engineer's office, and in the storage locker, 3rd shelf down, you'll find my rough schematics to all of the primary systems; get them, and start handin' them out as needed!"

_"Chief-"_

"I think we can do it sir... It's a long shot, but even if it doesn't work, we should still make it out relatively close to the Sol system--Maybe even Alpha Centari itself... Ha ha..." Laughing morbidly to himself, he turned back to the rest of the engineering staff. The crewman whom he'd sent into the engineer's office had followed his instructions to the letter, and was now standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Okay, I need someone to get to the lepton synthesizer, and bypass the safeties, but don't let the power flow go past fifty-five terra-watts!" Shouted the Chief. A few crewmen scurried away to the bowls of the bay; he turned to the engineer assistant...

"Ensign Cho, where's the assistant engineer?"

"He's dead, along with most of the Alpha-shift staff... They were either killed when commander Maxwell overloaded the main systems, or during the quantum transition." She replied. Feek shook his head in agitation.

"Then who's next in line for head of engineering?!"

"Ensign Cho, sir!" Replied someone from the crowd. The Chief looked at the man whom had spoken. He would have looked more or less untouched, that is, if he hadn't noticed the scorch marks on the side of his uniform. He must have been close to one of the EPS conduits when they surged.

"And who are you?"

"Lieutenant Roberto Martin; Head of Alpha-shift maintenance." He replied. The Chief grimaced at the sound of his tone, but dismissed it before turning back to the ensign.

"Well then, I guess that puts me in a tight spot, doesn't it?" Feek turned back to the rest of the staff. "Alright, let move it people; we're only going to get one chance at this, so brace your selves! It's going to get bumpy in here again!" Turning back to his consol, he transferred systems control to himself. If it had been anyone else, they probably would have had to keep running along the control bay just to keep check on all the systems--Then again, that was beauty of being the designer of such systems...

"Chief, all stations reporting ready." Said the ensign. Tapping in several equations, he tried to imagine the most likely outcome to their half-thought-out plan.

"Chief," Said the ensign. "What if this doesn't work?" Feek grimaced at the thought. It was just as likely, if not more so, that it wouldn't, but he wouldn't be of any use if he kept thinking that.

"It has to ensign, it's our only chance..." Not taking his eyes off of his broken screen, he continued to tirelessly input, and modify his own equations.

"Otherwise, it was nice to meet you." Shooting her a reassuring glance, a wan grin began tugging at the corner of his lips as he reached for the comm switch.

"Engineering to bridge, we're ready down here. We're going to cut the engines, and allow the restart to magnetize with the rift!" He brought up the controls for the particle collision chamber.

"All hands, this is engineering--brace for multiple impacts!"

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

The bridge was quiet as the captain awoke. The scent of ozone, and burnt meat filled the air of his bridge. As he looked around its darkened, semi-circular layout, he noticed several members of his moan, and twitch as they too came out of their forced slumber.

"Everyone who can move, statues report!" Demanded his first officer as he pulled himself back into his chair. They had only been on board the _Raven_ for less then a few days, but since day one, it had seemed more and more like he was the one in charge.

"Belay that," He barked, much to his first officer's annoyance. "Helm what's our statues?" A young woman pulled herself up to the broken consol, replacing the man whom lay on the deck in a pool of his own blood.

"Helm controls partially restored;" She replied. "We're listing at the bow, sub-light engines responding, but I only have thruster control for the stardrive section..." The captain grimaced. The stars spun on the main view screen as she attempted to stabilize their inertia.

"Mr. F'Ghi, can you tell me where we are?" The first officer asked. The young woman at the helm worked the damaged panel quickly, shorts snapping at her fingers with every few strokes.

"Ah, from what I can tell we're about five-hundred ninety-one kilometers from our last known coordinates." She replied. The two senior officers exchanged relieved glances, as they both relaxed slightly. Turning to the older man to his right; noticing the raised eyebrow on his dark face.

"Comm, can you raise mission control?" He asked. Shaking his head, the older man looked up.

"Negative, something's interfering with our comm array, I'm not even picking up anything on the FM bands..."

"An unexpected solar storm maybe?" Said his first officer.

"I don't think so, someone would have at least noticed." He replied. Turning back to the front of the bridge, he noticed a younger man working the operations consol.

"Problem lieutenant commander Carsoms?" He asked. The lieutenant stopped what he was working on, and with a slow turn, faced the captain; a haunted look on his face.

"Lieutenant-"

"Captain Farlind... I've just run a scan of our orbital path--There's something I think you need to see..." Replied a younger man from the left of his first officer. Within seconds the image of their slowly stabilizing free-fall disappeared. Farlind felt his eyelids strain at the image before him.

"According to my scans, I'm detecting debris from one giant orbital space station, and from over a dozen smaller vessels; all of an unknown configuration..." The captain stared into the giant maw of debris, where at the heart of it all, stood a giant, and broken circular space-station; a trio of half-circular pincers-like claws jutting out from the outer-most ring. Connected to the bottom of the three pincer-like claws, was connected a sphere-like object with a pair of oval-like pincers jutting out from it's base, both also shattered. And as they flew away from the scene, the visage of more, and more smaller golden ships filled the screen.

_Er err._ "Sir," Said the older man at the communications station. "I'm picking-up several-" His station exploded, sending his body flying across the bridge. The decking beneath them rolled, as they all hung on for dear life.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Report!" Shouted a pale man from the top of the room. All around him, soldiers were running around the circular room. The giant decorative pillars lining the walls flashed red in the darkened light. Fires were spreading throughout the room as the fire-suppression systems tried to snuff them out.

"The trans-warp gates overloaded, main-power's out, and weapons are down!" Replied one soldier from the consol at the bottom of the room.

"Gul Dukat, reports from our support fleet indicate that they have all either been destroyed or been completely disabled!" Shouted one of his subordinates.

"No, impossible! All of them!?" Said Dukat in disbelief. They had some of the most advanced ships in the fleet assigned to them, how could they _all_ have been swept away?! A low rumble vibrated through the already shaky deck.

"Another explosion, thirty-seven hundred kilometers away..." Shouted the soldier over the din of the room. "There's a vessel there!" Suddenly it all began to fall into place for Dukat as he turned to his subordinate.

"The resistance!?" He asked. The soldier shook his head.

"I don't know; I've never seen this kind of configuration before!"

"Gul Dukat, we are receiving an incoming distress call from ship!" The Gul turned towards left of the room, where situated just below the maintenance shaft, hung a giant, oval screen.

"On viewer."

_"This captain Mathew Farlind of the United Science Ship _Raven_, requesting immediate assistance. We've fallen through some sort of quantum rift; We've got damage and casualties across all decks! Mission control, if you can hear me..."_


	3. To Wear a Glass Mask

**Disclaimer:** Well, here it is... The third chapter of Changing Realities. I know, I know, I took my good 'ol time with this, there's not much I can do about that... Well, read and review! I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein, cannon or no, so **DON'T SUE ME!!**

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"How's my uniform look?" Asked captain Farlind, as he, his first officer, commander Alexie Shelotskov, the _Raven's_ navigator, ensign Abcde F'Ghi, as well as a small security detail of four stood before the darkened, and broken corridor beside the airlock. His first officer turned to him, and giving him a one-over, said in his heavily Russian accent:

"Like it was fished out of Hiroshima..." The captain rolled his eyes at the commander's reply.

"Oh come on Alex, lighten up!" The commander shot him a glair that, just by noticing it, should cause even his bad-tempered operations officer to shrink-back in fear.

"We are the first Human's to make contact with an Alien race, I don't think now is the time to be treating something like this 'lightly'." He snuffed. Farlind sighed in resignation.

"Stop it, the both of you-" Interrupted Abcde. "If we are going to be children, then at least don't act like spoiled brats!" Stunned, the two officer's turned to face the navigator. With her arms crossed, and a stern look on her face, she continued to stare off at the bulkhead which made up the circular airlock hatch. Allowing a slight smile to make its way to the surface, he thought back to how this turn of events almost went from bad to worse...

~~~~Flashback~~~~

_"Karlin, Are you alright?!"_ Commander Shelotskov asked, as he grasped the older man before he could collide with his consol, using his own body as a cushion. The older man coughed, and wheezed as he fought to catch his breath.

_"I think so..."_ He said, as he used the edge of the first officer station to pull himself up. The deck was still lurching, as he made his way back across the bridge.

_Erriiieee "' Engineering to bridge, what the hell are you doing up there?!"_ The Chief's voice came filtering over the comm. The captain hit the comm switch on the consol extension attached to his chair.

_"What the hell happened, it looked like the power grid over-loaded!"_ He shouted over the din of the bridge. An LCD screen exploded on the helm consol, burning the sleeve of his navigator. A small fire broke-out from where the screen had once been, but the woman working the station seemed to ignore it, as she continued to manipulate her damaged controls.

_"It did--At least partially!"_ Replied the architect; His voice becoming choppy over the speakers.

_"Captain, I think I've found the cause of the over-load, there's a worm in our main computer system!"_ The lieutenant shouted. In that moment, he nearly lost control as he felt his temper rising closer, and closer to the breaking point.

_"My God, just how many traps have been planted?!"_ Listening to his first officer, he counted the number of disasters that they'd had to deal with; The betrayal of his chief engineer, the shorting out of the helm controls, the loss of nearly all of their anti-matter storage-pods, and now this... He turned back to Karlin.

_"Lieutenant, is the comm-array still working?"_ The elder man glanced around his shoulder.

_"Yes, but I can't raise Mission control-"_

_"As long as we can still transmit, I don't care!"_ The captain said, his temper getting the best of him. _"Open all channels!"_ The lieutenant hesitated, but quickly dismissed it, and turned back towards his station.

_"Ready!"_ Farlind turned back to the front of the bridge.

_"This captain Mathew Farlind of the United Science Ship _Raven_, requesting immediate assistance! We've fallen through some sort of quantum rift; We've got damage and casualties across all decks! Mission control, if you can hear me- If anyone can receive this message, help, we've been sabo-"_

_"Sir, we're receiving a reply... It's from the unidentified station!"_ He locked his eyes onto the odd object.

_"On screen."_ A man, whose face was grey, his hair, combed loosely back, and with a pair of spines, identical in their appearance, ran down either sides of his neck.

_'Attention _Raven_, you will surrender yourselves and your ship immediately, and unconditionally!'_ He said. Farlind gave steeled his glair at him.

_"...And what happens if we don't?"_ The man, enraged and with his teeth clenched, allowed his lips to curve into a slightly insane smile.

_'If you don't, then we'll blast your little rebellion's newest starship out of the sky!' ... 'You have ten seconds to comply.'_ Alarmed by what he herd, Farlind took a moment to think over his options. Locking gazes with the grey-skinned man, he noticed the irregular illumination, nearly hiding his slightly disheveled hair. Grinning inwardly, he said:

_"I don't think you can,"_ The grey man's face twisted in anger.

_"Would you really wager the lives of your crew like that...?"_ There it was; the thing that he'd been waiting for; the look of rage. Pure, unrefined rage.

_"Yes." _He noticed his first officer fighting back the urge to shout him down. So instead, without removing this aggressor from his line of sight, he spoke. _"Commander Shelotskov; ready the PDL's, arm the warheads, and keep the railgun's on hot stand-by!"_ Beside him, he could _feel_ the commander's rejections to his orders, but still, he held back.

_"Aye sir... All armory bays report loaded and ready, and targeting systems are locked."_ He replied, not baring to turn away from his station. _"Ready to fire on your orders..."_ He could hear the commander's abrasive tone arguing against him every step of the way. But still, there was something holding him back...

_"I don't know what kind of sensing equipment you've got over there, but I'm willing to bet that you can tell that we're armed to the teeth, and ready to fire."_ The grey man's eyes kept shifting, as if he were searching for something that was just out of their vision.

_"There's no need for this, we don't have to fight... In your condition, your station wouldn't withstand our assault. Besides, if you destroyed us, then you would never find out how we got here; Let's both stand down..."_ The eyes of the grey man shifted; searching his own. Although the anger was gone, hate, and paranoia remained.

_'Very well... But you deactivate your weapons first.'_ He didn't like the idea, but if it meant keeping them on good terms... Hesitating for a quick moment, Farlind turned to tactical, and gave a quick nod.

~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~

_'...And now look at us; our first face to face contact.'_ He muse, as the lights around the airlock began to flash.

_"Shuttle docking complete."_ Said the disembodied voice of the _Raven's_ shuttle master. As the round door rolled away from its housing, a group of three large, grey-skinned soldiers stepped out. The first, being slightly shorted then the second, but not the third.

"Greetings, my name Gul Dukat of the Cardassian starbase _Shenkro Nor_..."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

Holding a cylindrical object in his right hand, as he used his left to complete the connections of its circuits to the panel before him, the Chief grumbled to himself in annoyance. Not at the fact that he now was the only engineer left whom _could_ do this, but that they still couldn't find the proper decoding sequence to commander Maxwell's blueprint encryption. On top of that, he couldn't even have anyone working on it in the open, all because the captain was having a few _guests_.

"-Incredible! Just the workmanship!" Came a deep, but slightly excited voice.

_'Speak of the devil.'_ He turned towards were the sound had originated at the front of the bay. _'Great, make that devils...'_ Setting the cylindrical device into its cubby and locking it in place, he listened into their conversation.

"-That looks like an anti-matter assembly, but I don't see any alpha particle synthesis occurring within the anti-matter reactions..."

"That's because there aren't any..." He said, putting his tools away. "Using any kind of normal matter with anti-matter is just far too dangerous; we'd loose the magnetic containment-fields if we tried. So, instead we use a series of sub-atomic particle accelerators to create particle fusion, with the anti-matter serving as a fusion agent." Closing the hatch to the access port, he pushed himself to his feet.

"This is lieu-"

"-Lieutenant commander Markus Feek, Chief Architect of _Project Raven_, and acting Chief Engineer." He said, cutting off captain Farlind. He turned to the group, ignoring their strange features, he walked over to one of the adjacent work consoles.

"You created all of this...?" Asked the deep voice once again; he paused.

"No, this ship designed by Monkey..." Was his reply. Deciding the power-distribution system would have to wait, he pulled up the current statues of the internal communications network.

"I see," Replied the large man, as he watched him over his shoulder.

"Chief," Said captain Farlind. He paused in his work, knowing what he wanted.

"Sorry sir, no time... Unless you want us to loose the rest of our anti-matter reserves, I have to get the seals stabilized..." Was his reply, as he crossed the length of the bay, ignoring the captain's silent pleas.

"It's quite alright captain Farlind, I understand; my own people are quite busy making repairs of their own." The man who stood at middle height said. There was something about that didn't seem right to the young engineer; something in his eyes that simply didn't sit well. The grey man turned back to face him; his lips contorted into a slight half-smile.

"Although, there is one thing that I don't quite understand... This ships name, _Raven_; I had to do a double-take when I first herd it... I mean, it's not a very auspicious name for a ship of science." The Chief grinned as he turned towards the group, crossing his arms.

"Exactly! There's nothing to it..." They three men gave him curious looks as he spoke. "In all of our world's cultures, there's almost no historical references to it, and what ever legends exist are grim, and morbid." Glancing over to one of the many blood-stained spots within the room, he continued.

"Death; that's what the name means. But then again," He turned back to the group. "_Death_ can also mean _change_, and our world is in a state of constant chaos; if there ever was a time for change, it's now... To preserve peace, prosperity, and most importantly of all, life." His blood turning to ice, as he spoke, he turned back to the consol; its controls too stained red. He fought back the rage that he could feel building within, but before he could move on to another station, he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

"You show an excellent mind for someone so young--In both knowledge, and intelligence." Said the shortest of the group, a slightly pudgy man whose thick face smiled gently. Returning a quick look over to the other two of his party, he said:

"Gul Dukat, if you don't mind, I'd like to remain here for a time; I'll have a better chance of figuring out why the trans-warp experiment failed." The Chief felt his eyebrow arch immediately at the term; curious as to what he could mean. With a quick nod, Gul Dukat's grin all but disappeared.

"Well, I think we've used up enough of your chief engineer's valuable time, shall we move on captain?" Farlind tilted his head slightly, grinning lightly.

"I completely agree; the Chief falls into a pretty foul mood when too many distractions dangle themselves in front of his face." The engineer shot his superior a sardonic glance, which the captain quickly negated with a wry smile. Turning to leave the bay, the Chief turned to the man whom had suddenly become his _guest_.

"So what's 'yer name?" He asked. The grey man grinned widely at him, turning away from his observations of the bays machinery.

"Doctor Velmon, Chairman of the Cardassian Institute of Warp and Sub-space mechanics." He said the title proudly, his grin disturbing the young engineer. "Now then, shall we?"

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Shit!" Cursed ensign Martin as a set of circuits burned out, scorching his fingers. Glancing over to his over-sized PDA he had connected to the conduit, checking to see if the data line had been cut as he sucked on the singed finger.

"No, not that one-"

"You never give up, do you?" Came a high, joking voice from behind him. Turning, he was greeted with the smiling face of ensign Cho, with a toolkit in hand. He looked back to the conduit.

"Problem ma'am?" He asked stoically, tapping one of the controls on his PDA's screen. Pulling a micro-solder pen from his only kit, he began repairing the burnt circuits. Behind him, he could hear Cho shifting her weight nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"Aside from the Chief _not_ threatening to disembowel the rest of the staff in front of one of the ambassadors, No." She said sarcastically. Surprised, he turned back to his new superior.

"Ambassador?" He asked. Her gaze dropped in surprise.

"You didn't hear? We've made contact with an alien species!" He couldn't believe what he had just herd; what the hell was happening?! "...Aaaand nearly started an interstellar conflict." She tacked on, rolling her eyes in mock embarrassment. Looking back down at the panel of circuits, he tried to connect everything that had occurred; the sabotage, the data encryptions, the accidents, and now this, their first contact... Was it all connected?

"What are you working on?" She asked, trying to sneak a glance over his shoulder at the conduit, he put away the pen.

"'Um trying to find the encryption codes to the computer core; from what I can tell, commander Maxwell used this data-port to hack the system." He replied, tapping the screen of his PDA. "I've already been able to partially decrypt the sequence, but if I didn't know any better, I'd almost say that he had an accomplice..." Kneeling beside him and glancing at his screen, Cho watched as he pulled up what he'd found.

"I don't know, you should see how the Chief sets things up; I don't think I've ever seen such paranoid security locks!" She said. "And since he was trying to arrest control of the system, it makes sense that the commander would change his style of coding." Martin reached back into the innards of the port.

"Hand me the proton meter..." He said. He could hear Cho, as she shuffled the tools in the box. Extending his hand out as he herd the shuffling stop, he felt the sharp edge of the tool hit him palm.

"OUCH!" He shouted, pulling his hand back quickly, and pressing his other into the wound. "Careful!"

"I'm so sorry!" She said as she for some disinfectant. Applying the disinfectant, he reached for his own liquid bandage.

"Maybe your right, after all, this is the first time anything other then a binary processing system has been used, it's possible-" The circuit snapped once again, this time scorching his nails.

"Dammit!" Cho giggled at his outburst.

"Here, let me help-"

"No!" He snapped. "Please ensign, between you, and these circuits, I'm not likely to survive..." He said in mock fear, holding up his nicked hands in defense. The ensign giggled at his antics.

"Alright... I really should get back to the bay, someone's gotta' keep the Chief from loosing his temper." With that, she disappeared down the corridor. Even though they were operating on auxiliary power, they at least had enough power to keep the lights at normal brightness. Grabbing the tool that the ensign had dropped, he wiped the blood that stained its tip. Glancing back down to his own read-out, he brought back up the screen that he'd been watching closely before his interruption.

"Let's hope that I don't have to use this..."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Incredible, absolutely astonishing!" Said Doctor Velmon, as he watched the young engineer completely rewire an entire circuit grid. Never in his life had he'd seen something like this; an entire computer system made entirely out of glass, metal, diamond, and quartz--obsolete, yes, but still intriguing.

"You were able to wire this entire ship with this?" He asked, pointing what he could only guess was an over-sized processor. The Chief turned back to him, giving him an annoyed glair.

"That's what's called, a transistor, thank you very much. No," He pointed the pair of tweezers that he was holding to an even larger, boxy device. "The computer uses these things to help control the systems. I call it, a pentary processor." He cocked his head in surprise.

"A _pentary_ processor?" He echoed. The Chief rolled his eyes as he went back to work reattaching circuits, and tubes.

"Yes, the older binary-based systems just couldn't hold up to the strain of running the types of processes that would be needed with our budget, so I had to completely redesign them--hence, the pentary processor." The doctor stared at him in wonder; after all, it wasn't everyday that one came into contact with such a simple yet complex theory.

"You, and this ship, are truly an enigma..." He said; the engineer stopped. Glancing back, he shot him a querying eye.

"Come again?" His right eyebrow shot up as he set his hands on the edge of the wall outlet.

"I'm serious, commander: Both you, and this ship are complete contradictions! On the outside, this vessel appears to be a poorly-built, obsolete, sub-light relic, but on the inside, you've found relatively simple, and new ways around some of the most complex questions that only the most advanced type three pulse civilizations in the galaxy have figured out!" He said enthusiastically, his hands flailing around as if he were a horse that was being attacked by a dog. The Chief could only snicker at this, as he watched his body flail around.

"What's so funny?" He asked. Feek calmed himself, letting his tools clank to the deck, as he brought his hands up to cover his mouth.

"Ha ha ha ha!" He laughed aloud, causing more or less all of the engineers in the room to turn open-mouthed at the pair. Forcefully calming himself down, the Chief gasped for breath.

"Ha ha ha ha haahh... 'Um sorry Velmon, but you should have seen yourself!" He said. The doctor felt himself blush as he realized what he'd just done. The Chief stood, and grasping a small box from his kit, he handed it to him.

"Tell me something, what do you see?" He asked. Velmon looked down at the small item; It was small, black, hand a series of small holes lining its sides, and was burnt, the answer was obvious.

"A bi-lateral relay node." He answered simply. "Why?" The Chief grinned at him, not giving him a clue as to what he wanted him to do.

"Open it." Said the Chief. Holding it between his fingers, Velmon pulled off the cover, unlatching the links on each of its sides. But what he saw inside of it, made his hair stand on end. Inside the device, a crystal-crimson circuit board was housed, and within the crystal, he could make out thousands if not millions of lines of fully-integrated circuits. But the complexity of how the circuits where setup was mind boggling, making his head spin just trying to make out what he was seeing.

"It's not that we're advancing faster then any other species, we're just taking extra hints from the designs of nature." Velmon continued to stare into the device; awe-struck by its intricacies.

"This- This almost looks like-" He couldn't bring himself to finish, how could someone like that have thought of something as beautiful as _this_?

"Yep, I modeled my entire circuit-design after a single neuron; every one firing off in such a way, that it mimics the way a brain communicates with a limb."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Well, what have you discovered?" Asked the Gul, as the _Raven's_ airlock hatch sealed behind them. The shuttles interior was small, but not cramped, much to the Doctor's relief.

"They are incredible!" Replied the Doctor. "Apparently, they're chief architect is the master-mind behind-" The Gul held his hand up.

"Please Doctor, spare me the details; just give me an overview." Velmon sighed in resignation, but still held his smile as he continued.

"Right, it would appear that this ship more technologically advanced than even I expected!" He said. "Even though they're heavily damaged, their systems are still able to function at normal efficiency!" Dukat thought about it for a moment; the feeling of the ships magnetic clamps as they released their hull rumbled throughout the cabin; the stars beyond shifting as they turned back for their station.

"Where you able to find out where it is they came from?" The smile on his face dimmed at the question.

"Well, no. I couldn't get close enough to a working terminal to try; but I did learn something very interesting about them, particularly, their engines, and how they can let their computer compensate for everything..."


	4. A Shadow in the Dark

**Disclaimer:** Here we are again, at the beginning of a new chapter. I realize this whole story may seem a little confusing for some people (i.e. those that have read my other Raven story), but trust me, it'll all come together soon enough, just be patient; So STOP EMAILING ME! Alright, with that said, on with the disclaimer... I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein, cannon or no, so **DON'T SUE ME!!**

"Final clamp alignment complete; Ship docking: Successful." Said the soldier from the front of the room. Dukat watched the small, cylindrical vessel on the screen as its nose connected with one of their outer docking rings. Watching the trio of rings on the bone-white ship as they spun, he couldn't help but feel slightly nostalgic; almost as if he were visiting an exhibition on his homeworld regarding his own peoples early days of space-flight.

"Gul Dukat, shall I initiate the computational connection?" Asked the same officer. Coming out of his musings, Dukat shot a glance over to Doctor Velmon, whom had been observing the entire procedure to ensure that neither the station, nor the ship received further damage. The doctor gave a shrug.

"Our systems should be compatible..." He said manipulating several controls at the workstation he'd commandeered. Still not able to take the man seriously after what he'd told him earlier, the shot him a suspicious look. Velmon rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Their ship may be obsolete, but their computational systems are almost as advanced as ours." The Doctor replied.

"Their life signs still read as _Terrin_--Their ruthless barbarians, we should still use what ever safeguards we can." Said Dukat, his voice rigid, but pleading to the man.

"...All the more reason why we should connect! I've already activated my most careful firewalls to the system, if they do try something, then the damage will be highly localized--The rest of our systems will absolutely fine!" Velmon replied overtly. Eyeing the warp-theorist carefully, the Gul turned back down to the one at the main control table.

"Very well, allow the connection." He said. Within seconds, the sounds of the controls responding filled his ears. The soldier turned back towards him.

"Link successful. We are now connected, and have limited access to the _Raven's_ computer network." Dukat let out a 'hump' in satisfaction.

"Damar, monitor the _Raven_, and coordinate their requests... I'll be in my office." He said as he turned his back to the rest of the stations operations center, and stepped briskly through the over-sized doors at the rear of the room. As the doors closed, Dukat walked over to a small, inlet wall-alcove.

"Raktajino." He said. A flash of light came to life in the alcove, but died in seconds. Pulling out a small brown mug, he lightly sipped the steaming liquid inside.

"Quite a day, isn't it?" Spoke a voice from behind him. Spinning quickly toward his desk, while dropping the mug as he reached for the weapon at his hip by reflex, he felt his jaw stiffen as he locked his eyes on his back-turned chair.

"Who's there?!" He spat out. A low chuckle could be herd from behind the seat. Turning slowly, the one sitting in it turned to face him.

"Relax Dukat; you're too on edge..." The voice said in amusement. The Gul released his grip on his weapon as he followed the stranger's advice, and relaxed. The man's sharp, pointed face grinned a toothy smile at the Gul. Dukat sighed, stepping closer to his desk.

"What is it that you want Shijil?" He asked. The man's grin died slightly as he rolled a small, round object in his hand.

"You have guests..." The words cut through the air, leaving a heated trail in its wake as Shijil allowed his grin to return to full force. "Tell me; what do you know, of this _Raven_?"

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Dammit, I was afraid of this..." Said ensign Cho, slamming her fist on the edge of the consol before leaning down on it. Looking up at the core, she watched as the sphere at the end of the particle accelerators flashed in credulous patterns.

"Afraid of what; the fact that your not going over the engine sensor logs like I asked you to do?" Came a familiar voice from behind her. Fear jolting her on end, she slowly turned to face the Chief. His uniform was torn, burned, and bloody; his short, black hair was disheveled and strewn with dirt and ash.

"Akai...?" He said warningly as rubbed a partially blood-shot eye. Cho took a deep breath to try and calmed herself; collecting her thoughts as she reset her consoles scan results.

"It's the anti-matter storage pods... The logs registered that they activated the - auto ejection sequence, so I was checking to see how much of our anti-matter stores were lost when the seals demagnetized; but then, something in the data hit me." She said. The Chief grinned.

"Oh," He asked jokingly. "Did it hurt?" She chuckled slightly at his comment, thankful to him for lightening the grim-feeling she'd felt pressing down in her chest.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I thought back to this paper that I'd read about a month ago; It was on how certain types of anti-leptons could cause highly charged anti-matter to emit a vague, but detectable quantum signal." She said, as she manipulated the screen on her consol. The Chief leaned in to watch.

"Yeah, I read the same paper..." Replied the Chief. "I spoke to it's author, Professor Hawking not long after he published it--He said that if fully charged anti-matter where to be forced to suddenly change their electro-magnetic signature, then whatever anti-matter isn't charged would be polarized at random." He replied. Watching her hands as they danced across the board's switches, she pulled up a sensor diagnostic.

"Yeah, but if that's true, then why have I found this?" As the diagnostic completed, the Chief, not believing his own eyes, grabbed a hold of the consol, pushing the ensign out of the way.

"The signatures, they match!" He said. "Tha- That's impossible! I'm running the scan again!" His fingers rushed across the controls of the terminal, dancing madly as he ran the same diagnostic over again. As the results came back to him, he froze in shock.

"It's true..." He whispered. "We've lost eighty-three percent of our stores, and our last full pod is already registering a quantum EM signature..." Bowing her head in resignation, she walked over to an adjacent terminal.

"According to my preliminary scans, the signature-" She gulped. "Matches the signature of the original rift..." A moment of silence hung steadily in the air; neither one of them willing to speak, as the Chief cancelled the redundant scan.

"I suggest that isolate the pod before the first pod runs-"

"No." The Chief said, cutting her off. "The captain informed me not too long ago that we'll be receivin' a fresh batch of fuel... Shut down the entire core, and switch over to the auxiliary nuclear core generators." Shocked at his calm reaction, she head twisted towards him quickly enough to have broken her neck. Not needing to hear her argument, the engineer spoke up.

"That anti-matter's our only way back home ensign, and we need to preserve as much fuel as we can while we effect repairs as fast as possible." His voice was low, and grim, and the sheer annoyance, and irritation; any and all emotion that she had always heard in it was now gone. He tilted his head back, loosing his gaze on the core; his core with blank eyes.

"Who knows what's going to happen if and when we set course for home..."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Impressive..." Said command Shelotskov, as he, captain Farlind, and one security escort walked onto the Promenade of _Shenkro Nor_. Below them, as they watched from the upper level. Hordes of creatures, mostly Cardassians, milled around below them, going about their business.

"I feel like I'm at a comic book convention." Said the captain. Arching a quarrying brow, along with Gul Dukat, and Leget Damar, they all looked over at the captain. Chuckling lightly to himself, Farlind turned to the grey-skinned Gul; a wry grin plastered across his face.

"What? Don't tell me you've never seen anyone dressed up in a ridiculous costume?" He asked. Dukat grinned at him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You know captain; you sound exactly like my youngest son when returned from his studies on Betazed." Behind the pair, the commander gave a loud 'Harrumph' in an attempt to keep the pair moving, but as he finished his interruption; a dull cough could be herd on the other side of the pair, emanating from the Leget. Both men chuckling lightly to their assisting officers actions.

"It would appear that both of our subordinates are growing impatient." Said Dukat, shifting lightly to put his weight on one leg. The commander locked gazes with Damar, both reflecting the suspicion in each other's eyes, but as Shelotskov looked into the Cardassians eyes, he couldn't help but notice something else in there; something that he could only feel to be akin to loathing.

"Well I can see why; their both looking at each other like a pair of paranoid cats preparing to pounce--Lighten up you two!" Replied Farlind, clapping his hands to grab their attention. Snapping back to reality, the pair turned their looks back to the human. Ignoring their death-glairs, he turned back to Dukat.

"So as I was saying earlier," Turning back toward the bulkheads which held numerous oval windows, the pair began making their way around the upper levels. "The help that you've given us to repair _Raven_ has been incredible, especially doctor Velmon. But there's still one thing that I still don't understand..." Turning to face the Gul once again, his wry grin all but disappeared. "What exactly do you hope to get out of this?" The question hit the group hard, each of them stopping in their tracks. With their security escort by his stiffening his posture, ever so slightly, he too readied himself, should he have to grab hold of the Leget behind them. Giving a light chuckle to his question, Dukat turned back to the captain.

"I knew that you would ask that, sooner or later." He replied. "You came from the other side of our experimental Trans-warp gate using something other than trans-warp technology; I'm simply curious as to how you were able to accomplish that... At this point, the only thing that _I_ want is to know how you got here." The wry grin which had dominated Farlind returned to his visage as he replied.

"It's simple, we didn't; you did."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Are you sure this load of anti-matter's safe?" Asked one of security personnel, ensign Aot Kigh, as he watched the Cardassians drop off their latest shipment of ionized anti-matter. The engineer on duty, ensign Martin, detached his scanning instrument from the side of the container.

"The magnetic constrictor is holding with its internal power systems, and no, I haven't detected any flaws in the seals so they won't fail as soon as we bring them aboard..." Replied Martin. Looking up at the tall crewman, casting him a sullen look, the ensign stood, using the container's edge for leverage, but even bringing himself to his full height, he was still a foot shorter then the soldier.

"Look Aot, the Chief gave me strict order's to pay extraordinary attention to every molecule of anti-matter that we get, and trust me, I don't want anything to happen to us either, so I'm following his directions to the 'T'!" Not giving the security guard the chance to respond, he moved on to one of the large in-let wall consoles, and hit one of the controls.

"Martin to the Chief." He said, pausing to wait for a reply. Although he herd the familiar chirping of the computer, his answer never came, so he hit the button again.

"Martin to lieutenant commander Feek, please respond." Worry creasing across his brow; he turned to Kigh, whose hand was already reaching for the specially tuned hand radio set on his shoulder.

"Kigh to bridge, we can't seem to get a hold of the Chief, could you give us an update of his ware a bouts-"

"That won't be necessary ensign, I'm right here..." Said the Chief, as he, and two others walked out of the airlock. Martin recognized the tall woman flanking his left, whose olive skin matched that of the Chief's, as Master Chief Petty Officer, W-5 Sasqua Dove, but the other security officer to his right, he didn't recognize, and judging by the lack of rank insignia, he realized that the man was an enlistee. Most likely meant as a security guard for one of the four research colonies they were meant to set-up once they reached their other solar launch-points. The Chief turned to him, as the guards boots landed on the station deck.

"Stay here." Turning back to Marin, a devious grin spreading across his lips, the ensign could feel his skin crawling at the sight before him.

"So, any trouble?" He asked. The question threw the maintenance engineer off guard, but deciding to err on the safe side, he relaxed his posture.

"None sir, I haven't found anything wrong with the anti-matter captain Farlind was able to negotiate for. As soon as the next shipment comes in, we should be able to restore main power to the SPL drive-"

"We won't be doing any such thing." Taken aback by his sudden response, the ensign leaned in closer to the acting Chief engineer.

"Sir, if I may speak freely, we can only-"

"No you may not, ensign." Turning back to security guard standing in front of the airlock, the Chief gave him a slight nod. Lifting his rightful, the guard walked up behind him.

"Ya' know, I was working on trying to find a way to release the security lock-out on my blue-prints, when I discovered that there was a completely separate code sequencing. At first I just thought of it as a delay and confusion tactic; you know, change the pattern as to how a security system is locked out by making others think that maybe, it was really the work of two people..." His wry, ersatz grin fading from his lips, he lifted his chin to the short, but equally tall service engineer.

"But then I checked the maintenance logs; you know the ones stored on the transfer nodes in section four, junction seventeen-theta...?" The Chief's glair became dangerous as he lowered head back to its normal height, taking in a deep breath, causing his chest to expand as he crossed his arms. "They were all wiped ensign--And then there's what ensign Cho told me about our remaining anti-matter." Leaning closer to the ensign, a demonic grin began spreading faster than an oil spill across his lips.

"The data in the nodes may have been erased, but the ionic scanner in the anti-matter pods weren't... Someone reprogrammed the seals on the pods to fail; and the work has your handwriting written all over it." Martin sighed in defeat. He knew that he should have been more careful with covering his tracks, but in a way, he was glad that he had been caught.

"Your right commander, I'm the one who sabotaged the pods..." He replied. The grin which the Chief had been sporting just seconds earlier faded. With a cold turn of his head, the guard came up past the commander, and grabbed his arm.

"Ensign Roberto Martin, you are under arrest for sabotage, and as your acting supirior officer, are here-bye confined to the brig until further notice." The words sounded hollow in his own ears, even as the man pulled him back towards the airlock. Making his way to the raised stair, he noticed the group of guards standing on the other side of the lock.

"One more thing ensign..." The pair stopped mid-step just as they reached the thresh hold that separated the station, from the ship.

"Who are you protecting?" The question came as a surprise to him; the Chief was smart, but how had he come to that conclusion? In stead of replying, he simply stared into the crystal-lead view-port of the _Raven's_ hatchway. Thousands of questions began filtering through his mind, and with them, thousands of answers, but a few still seemed to haunt him. When the Chief's question lingered in silence for too long, he watched as the engineer's ghostly reflection turned far enough to eye him.

"I thought as much." Said the Chief, and with that, the pair resumed climbing the single, large stair; a low chuckle came from out of the corridor beyond. Once again stopping, they all glanced at the figure standing in the squared archway.

"Very interesting, lieutenant commander Feek..." Said the stout but wide figure. The Chief turned to the alien.

"Who are you!?" He asked. The creature grinned madly at the group, barring a set of razor teeth. Then, pulling out a half-spherical device from his belt, he held its dark-blue surface toward them.

"I'm surprised commander; and here, I thought you were smarter than that..."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxxs**

"That's it; you're free to go mister Karlin..." Said a man wearing a white lab coat. The older communications officer slid off the side of the gurney, holding his bandaged side. All around them in the medical bay of the _Raven_, were people; members of the crew, being treated for various wounds. Watching a nurse walk from a door to an adjoining room, the doctor caught a view of one of the rooms content's: A large white bag, sitting on a metal table. Turning back to the lieutenant, he noted the morbid look at had taken over his angular features.

"Doc-" He stopped himself. "Ratus... How many?" The question hit him harder then he'd expected, but holding in a deep breath, he replied:

"Thirteen... Primarily from engineering." His deep Irash accent taking the sharp edge off of the news, but still, he could see it cut deep into the scientist.

"...I still can't believe it happened." Hearing the regret in the duel chief science, and communications officer's voice, the doctor couldn't help but share in the man's regret. True, moment's after their launch, they had seen a disaster at one of the most critical times in their planet's history, launched to this desolate wasteland away from their homes.

"We were the last hope--The only thing standing between the guns of war..." Bringing himself back to reality, Ratus placed a kind hand on the man's shoulder.

"Whatever's running through your head Sam, forget it. I won't have it--We're still alive, and that's all that matters right now." Seeing the pain in his auburn eyes lift with the darkness of the med-bay, the lieutenant gave him a slow nod.

"We may have been thrown to the other side of the universe, but that doesn't mean we're stuck here." He glanced down at the gurney, its sheets still covered in blood. Normally they would have been replaced before someone else could have used it, but in the emergency, they had no such luxury. Seeing the scientist crack a wan grin in understanding, however slight, Ratus returned the gesture with a nod of his own. Just as he was about to move on to another patient and let Karlin go on, the alert klaxons went off in the bay. He tried his best to mask annoyance at the alarms; he went over to one of the medical workstations.

"Medical to bridge, what the bloody-hell is going on up there?" He asked. This instance made for the third time that the sirens had gone off since they had originally stood down from emergency conditions. But when he didn't hear a reply come from over the comm, he began to get worried.

"Medical to bridge-" The channel became filled with static. Lifting his had to try changing the comm frequency, he heard the lieutenant speak into his own radio.

"Karlin to bridge-" His hand unit crackled with static; the same as the wall unit. Looking back across the room, the lieutenant locked eyes with the doctor. The tape that held red-spotted gauze to the side of his face stretched and warped, as worry overtook his face.


	5. Where Duty May Lie

**Disclaimer:** Okay, here it is...finnaly, chapter five. I would've had this thing out _way_ sooner, but my damn PC crashed, and both of my previous back-ups were corrupted, so I essentially had to reconstruct it from memory. It's not as good as the origenal was, because I sort of rushed it (I _do_ have other projects), but I can live with how this one turned out. Now, enough of my wandering mind, let's get to the goods, shall we? I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein...cannon or no. Only the things which I create here, so **DON'T SUE ME!!**

A deathly quiet covered the room. A man stood in front of one of the oval windows which lined the wall. Behind him, stood a long table, which extended the length of the room. In a chair sitting at one end of the table, was his property; silent in waiting. It was his prize from his last victory; from the last time he had met _them_. Outside the viewport, the image of the long, silvery-white vessel hung amongst the stars. Bearing a strange resemblance to a bird with its wings folded, he smirked at the sight, thinking of things which were to come. Behind him, the door whisked open, and the image of a Cardassian officer was reflected in the transparent surface.

"Patriarch, Raquorpis has returned...with your request." A slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Not turning to face the soldier, the Patriarch instead made due with facing his reflection.

"Send them in." He watched the soldier disappear in the night, leaving only the golden tone of his flesh to shine. Then the door parted again, and the all but invisible curve at the edge of his mouth turned into a fool-fledged grin, as he watched the group of humans march into the room at gun-point; their hands all defiantly at their sides. He carefully scanned the group's faces as they walked in, paying close attention to one in particular. As the door closed behind the group, one of the humans took a half-step forward. His eyes were aglow with rage, and something else; wheather or not he realized it, the Patriarch did.

The young human gritted his teeth as he said: "Who the hell are you, and why are we here?" His tone dripped a deadly poison, reflecting the glare in his eyes, which shined a hazel mixture of green, surrounded by a corona of golden yellow. Turning away from the glass, the Patriarch smiled.

"Lieutenant Markus Feek; It's good to see you again...chief." He had expected to see the human steel himself at the greeting, but instead, he did something unexpected, and softened the knitting of his brows.

"What?" He asked, "What are you talking about; who are you?" The tall, golden-skinned man stared at the lieutenant dumbfounded. In all of his encounters with the young human, he had never known him to be anything other than honest. Deciding not to pry any further, for the time being, he would play along with the Chief's line of questioning.

"Very well; I am Xelmekrow'Bekelov Shijil, Patriarch of the second clan of the Grigesque Empire." Now it was Feek's turn to stare at him dumbfounded; he obviously hadn't expected him to answer the question so easily. Taking this chance of pause, the Patriarch made a much more thorough scan of the rest of the Chief's party. Taking notice of the scorch marks, and charred flesh, and fabric, as well as the scrapes, burses, and gashes that the entire group sported, he understood what must have transpired. He turned to the escort which he had the task with retrieving the group.

"Raquorpis, I thought I said _not_ to lay a finger on them." The only other Grigesquen in the room bared the first row of his sharpened teeth.

"I didn't, sir. They were already like this when I got there." A defiant grin plastered itself across his liaison's lips. Turning back to face the group of humans he locked his gaze with lieutenant Feek's. Raising his hand, he pointed it toward Raquorpis. The Chief harden his gaze, searching for a reason. Then, with a flick of his hand, he brought it flat. A wave of light-pink filled the room, landing on anything and everything that could stop its path. Gasps sounded from around the group, with the chief's voice being the only one remaining silent. The human was the first one to move; turning head as much as he could without breaking eye contact. Then, he finally switched, laying his sights on what he had done. There, slumped against the wall, was all that remained of his liaison; a pile of limp meat, without a head. The Chief looked down onto his mostly white sleeve, paying notice to the splatter of flesh, bone, and blood. As the young human turned back, all of the steel that the chief had walked into the room with had disappeared, and, much to his surprise was replaced with something else; but what surprised him the most, was when he spoke.

"Ya' know Xel, he was telling the truth." Now it was his turn to steel himself. The rage which had filled the human when he had walked in was gone, now, leaving something else behind; alone. "I don't know who you are, or why, if what I'm thinking is true, you brought us here, but if you lay a single finger on anyone else while I'm here I will make you regret it."

"Hm hm hm hm...HAHAHAHAHA!" Patriarch Xel laughed hysterically. This continued on for several seconds more, before the golden-skinned man calmed himself down.

"Forgive me, but I believe your people would call this, Déjà vu...this isn't the first time that I've heard you say that." He said while continuing to grin, "This experiment was a failure, but a marvelous one all the same!" Bringing his hand up to the lone, and horrified Cardassian standing by the door, he brought his hand flat once again; blowing a hole through one side of the soldier's neck, taking most of his jaw with it. His eyes opened full in shock, as an audible gurgle could be heard from what remained of his windpipe just before he collapsed. Again the Chief remained unfazed by the act.

"Very perceptive, lieutenant...it was, as a matter of fact us that brought you here; but our intent wasn't to bring _you_ here. In fact, it was the opposite! We were looking for you...or at least, a different version of you." Pausing to catch up with his thoughts, he looked into the Chief's face, and again, was vaguely surprised when he saw a grin begin to appear at the corners of his lips.

It wasn't enough to stop him, for he continued; "We were chasing a 'bird' as your duplicate put it...and it wasn't a Raven, but a Phoenix." The grin which had threatened the human's face disappeared; finally, Xel had turned the tables.

Letting out another maniacal laugh, he raised an arm toward the lieutenant. "Ha ha ha; I don't know if you're the right one that I've been searching for, but never the less, you will all die here-" The ground beneath his legs shuttered, catching him off-guard. Although he didn't take his arm down, he did look away; back toward the long table.

"Find out what that was." He said. The Patriarch waited for his property to comply, but instead, it simply continued to sit there...and then, it looked up. Her dull, lavender skin shined even in the dim light. Swinging his arm towards her, he allowed a growl to escape the confines of his throat.

"I said MOVE!" The room shook again, this time forcing the lights to flicker as the hum of power in the walls dulled. The lavender-skinned woman stood up from her seat, and stared straight into his eyes.

"No." She said. Fury welled within the Grigesquen as he drilled into her defiant eyes.

He replied, "Very well." And flicked his hand flat.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Out of the way!" Shouted Doctor Velmon as he rushed down the corridor as fast as his short legs could carry him. His thoughts were in a complete tangle; he'd been in his lab working on his latest scans of the human vessel when he felt the whole station jerk. He made a quick turn down a two-way intersection, just as another wave of shutters rippled through the Duranium superstructure. A bulkhead ruptured behind him, creating a breach in the hull. He felt the pull of atmosphere as all of the local gases escaped. He grabbed a hold of a metal strut, and, reaching for an access panel set in the wall, activated the emergency force fields. The suction stopped immediately as clouds of gas and debris sparked against its charged surface, but Velmon didn't take notice, as he wouldn't even give himself the chance to recuperate. He set off down the path once again.

_"Stop them!"_ Shouted a voice from the other end of the corridor. The doctor stopped in his tracks. The familiar whine of multiple particle weapons sounding in the distance, he knew exactly what was happening. He ran back to the access panel, and waited for whatever was to happen next.

"Quickly, we have to get you back to your ship!" The Cardassian doctor froze as he recognized that voice.

"Well then, I suppose I know what to do next then, don't I?" He said to no one in particular. Using the terminal to access the stations power-grid, he tapped in a few basic commands. The dull thumping of boots upon the carpeted deck grew, as both groups drew nearer. Then, a group of six came out from one of the intersections corners. There, he saw the humans, along with one of the Grigesque slaves. He didn't know what her name was; they had been told by the Grigesque that their 'property' didn't have proper names, just numbers, but _this_ one in particular, to his knowledge, never even had that. Even when he asked her in private...

"This way!" The doctor shouted to the group, gathering their attention. He waved for them to follow him, but a few of the human's just pointed their weapons at him.

The purple-skinned woman gave him one look, and with a quick nod said: "He's on our side, follow him!" She turned and began running down the corridor, but Velmon stayed where he was at the wall terminal. Just as the group of Cardassian guards rounded the corner as well, he slapped the black-surface of the panel.

"Doctor, get dah-" A force field flashed to life just as a pair of armed personnel rammed into it, but instead of being stopped by the spark of the electric barrier, a bright flash lit-up the dim space. Velmon covered his eyes from the blast, but he could still see the green and yellow after-flashes which had become burned into his retinas. The force of the explosion, while for the most part cancelled out by the field, still packed enough of a shock to knock him off his stance. He didn't waste any time on the ground; with bits of sheared metal digging into his hand as he pushed himself up from the ground, the Cardassian scientist shot a look back to where his now former-comrades had once been, but the only thing that he could see was the crisped debris that crowded the corridor. He glanced back to check on the rag-tag group, and saw that they too had been tossed by the shock-wave. One of them raised a head and shook a few burning embers from it.

"Ya' know, I think this is turning into one of the worst days of my life." Said the young woman. She shot a glance his way, and a slim smile crept onto her face. He didn't recognize her, but judging from her uniform, the doctor knew that she had to be a member of the _Raven's_ crew.

"I guess we have you to thank for this?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Velmon returned a somewhat awkward grin as a reply; especially when he realized that two certain members of the group had also joined them in conscious recovery.

"Yak! Ya' certainly don't do anything small, do ya' doc?" The scientist grinned at his counterpart's reaction. It was true, that his work didn't have the tendency to be on small scales, but then again, it also didn't tend to blow up on him. He glanced over to the group's unwilling leader, to ensure that she was alright, but before he knew what was happening, he felt a heavy impact on the right side of his face. WAM! The sickening sound of bones cracking reverberated not through the air, but his scales, traveling all the way through to his eardrums. He didn't exactly feel any pain just yet, but he was sure that he would soon. The doctor didn't know when he actually hit the ground; before or after the deck lurched to a sudden strange angle, but he did know when he stopped.

"That was dangerous, Velmon! You didn't have to kill them!" Knowing whom it was who hit him, and why, he shook his head. The numbness which covered half of his face in his body's natural response to the injury forced him to half frown, while on the other side of his face, he simply pursed his lips. He sat up, leaning against the bulkhead on the other side of the access console.

"There was no other way," he replied. "If I hadn't, then those security guards would have notified command, and we would have lost our only edge!" The lavender-skinned woman relaxed somewhat at his words, but he could see that she was only doing so because of their present situation. He was sure that if they weren't so pressed for time, then she would have continued to speak her mind. Instead, she clutched the weapon attached to her hand. A simple guess at what she had done with it told him as to why she was so apprehensive, but, for his own sake, he decided not to dive into the matter. He looked into her eyes, and the slightly pudgy theorist knew that she was slapping together another set of quick insults to go with her reluctant agreement, but before she could finish, a light-brown hand landed heavily on her barely covered shoulder.

"That's enough," Said the Chief calmly. "I don't like what he did either, but sometimes the best path isn't always that easy or unambiguous." Velmon was slightly taken aback by the words of the human. They were simple, but they sounded profoundly familiar to him. No, he'd heard them somewhere before. He could see that their lavender-skinned guide had been deeply affected by them as well, as her eyes shone with a deep affection, and sadness. Unfortunately, the moment was cut short by the echo of shouts coming from the other side of his force-field. The Chief barely paid it any heed, even as he rose back to his feet.

Holding out his other hand to her, he said: "By the way, do ya' have a name? It's not exactly fair for you to know my name when I don't know yours." The smile that the woman cracked looked like nothing the Cardassian physicist had ever seen on her before.

A low chuckle escaped her before she simply answered, "Z'Quaz." The Chief returned the light-hearted smile, as she pulled herself up, though instead of letting go of her hand, the human engineer shifted his grip.

"Well then Z'Quaz, how about we get out of here before things get too complicated?"

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Someone, please give me a report!" Shouted Gul Dukat as he stepped off of the lift. The entire command center was in disarray, as the group made their way onto the deck. Another lurch tore through the ground, temporarily turning the room on its side.

"I hope this station doesn't do this _every_ time you have visitors, Dukat!" Said captain Farlind as he held onto a nearby railing off to the side. Above it, he noticed was a platform of some kind...but its purpose seemed to evade him as his attention was brought back to the scene in front of him. Cardassians were rushing from station to station, grabbing onto whatever they could find to steady themselves as they went. Then he saw the Gul turn away from the table on the lowest level of the room.

"Sorry, but _Sentok Nor_ hasn't exactly been behaving itself since we install the transwarp-gate, but I can assure you captain, your _Raven_ will be unharmed..." Farlind didn't like the way the Cardassian commander had phrased his answer, but for the time being, he would have to see past it. Another quake rumbled its way through the station.

"Get down!" The captain felt an impact on his side, and a flash before his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with a heavy arm hanging over him. His ears rung and he was disoriented. He looked around the dark room, and realized that a few of the Cardassians standing in front of them had also collapsed, most of them into half-torn messes. The human captain tried to call out, but no sound would come out of his mouth; then he felt something hit his shoulder. He looked for the source, and found the lone security escort which he had brought along with him. He instantly recognized her as ensign Angelica Chalen, the head of security for the Martian research and exploration team they were carrying. She mouthed something to him, but he could just barely make out the slightest of muffles. Then, in an instant, it all came back to him.

"CAPTAIN!" Her voice was frantic, but not as much as the rest of the room. Groans and gurgles could be heard from the center of the room, turning his head to try and pinpoint where the sound had come from, he realized that it was the Cardassians whom had been unfortunate enough to have been in front of them before the explosion. He tried not to think about it; most likely, they would be dead before a doctor could be called. Maxwell made another quick sweep of the room.

"Where's Shelotskov?" The ensign mimicked his scan before turning back to him.

"I don't know; he should've been right behind me!" They both turned back to the alcove from which they came, but instead of finding the monolithic platform, the pair instead found an empty void. Farlind tried not to think about it, as another wave surged through the ground. Instead, the middle-aged human hardened himself, as he leapt back to his feet. A million things ran through his mind, but there was only one which he even dared to pay attention to; one little thing.

"Dukat! I have to get back to my _Raven_...You and your crew should come with me." The Cardassian Gul stopped at the request. A smile bared its way onto his smug face, and the captain decided that it was the sickest one he'd seen. Dukat turned to him; even as his command center was coming down around him. As his station shook itself to pieces, Leget Demar, standing beside him, stopped his warnings, and the voicing of his suggestions as he realized that his superior was no longer listening.

"It's alright, Mathew, I have things completely under control...Just wait and relax, and we'll all be fine-"

"Captain!" Ensign Chalen raised her weapon at the Cardassian; shouting as she moved in front of the captain. The Leget did the same, but he already knew why.

"You disappointed me; you're such a bad liar Dukat." Any amusement which Farlind may have had earlier disappeared; being replaced by pure contempt. The Gul saw his uncharacteristic change, but didn't let it affect him. Instead, he reached into the pouch on his side, and pulled out its hidden weapon.

Dukat pointed it towards the captain, but Farlind refused to budge. "As do you, _captain Farlind_," replied the Gul. His smile widened. "You've known for quite some time; but tell me, when did you figure my plan out?" The question was straight forward, but Farlind being his own manipulative self, simply gave a knowing, and equally disturbing smile of his own.

"Since you first set foot on my ship, Dukat," his smile grew, as his Cardassian counter part's equally faded. "...No one get's over their anger that quickly; not without being overly cautious, or of course, they're being deceptive. In which case, they'll use almost any excuse to either disprove, or eradicate their fears...that, and I never trust anyone who grins more than me." The Gul's lips contorted in something between annoyance, irritation, and contempt, but the captain wasn't sure which really to call it. Then another set of lurches rippled threw the deck, though this time not as bad.

"Whoever said that _I_ was the one that was causing all of this?" Although Farlind was surprised by his answer, he couldn't say that he hadn't expected it. But what did throw him through a loop, was when his Leget turned his weapon on him.

"No, but I do." The group looked at Demar as if he'd grown a second head; especially Dukat, whom simply stared in shock. Another group of tremors tore through the super-structure of the station, causing an explosion in the adjacent room on the other side of the command center. Atmosphere could be seen being sucked between the closed doors, before suddenly stopping. Unfazed by the violence, the Leget extended out his hand.

"Your weapon, sir." Dukat bore through his subordinate, as the Leget held out his hand. Farlind's escort pointed her weapon at the Leget, but he didn't pay her any heed; instead, without taking his eyes off of the Gul, Demar tapped a few controls on the consol beside them.

"The transporter pads are on the platform next to the lift. I've already programmed the coordinates to take you back to your ship," Demar said. The human captain didn't entirely trust the Cardassian Leget, but he decided to take the chance. He turned to the ensign.

"Let's get moving!" Another jolt rumbled through the deck plate beneath them, and Dukat made a grab for the Leget's weapon. Ensign Chalen stumbled over to the platform, and turned when she realized that he wasn't following her.

"Captain, what are you doing?" She shouted over the din of the command center's personnel. Everyone there was running around, trying to do something to keep _Sentok Nor_ together, so none of them were really paying any real attention to what was going on. Farlind made a leap for Dukat, and easily grabbed the weapon out of its holster.

He pointed it at the pair as he said: "That's enough!" The two Cardassians stopped their struggle as they heard him. He leveled the oversized hand weapon at the Gul's head, before motioning to Demar.

"You're going to let him go, and then you're going to let us leave...do we have a deal Dukat?" The Cardassian Gul simply smiled manically at the sight; laughing with malice even as the Leget moved away.

"Do you really think you'll be able to survive?" He asked. Now it was captain Farlind's turn to laugh, though not as loud, or dangerously.

"I'm sure how powerful this thing is, but I'll bet that I can figure out how to set it to overload, fairly quickly...the only question that I have for you, is how fast can you chase it if I throw it?" Although the smile on the Gul's face didn't disappear, it did however, dull slightly to his threat.

"Fast enough," He replied. "Besides, even if I die, it won't take long for my station's crew to reroute command functions to the auxiliary control area." The two allowed for those words to linger for a few moments, neither wanting to give in, and reveal the rest of their hand. But after another round of quakes, Farlind knew that he just didn't have the time to play a waiting game.

"Yeah, but at least I can slow you down!" As he spoke, he twisted the control just above the handle. A low whine could be heard slowly gaining in pitch as he made his way to the transporter pad. Once he was on top of it, Leget Demar followed by leaping onto the pad.

"No," Said Dukat as he faced them. "I thought you weren't that kind of man, Farlind!" The captain allowed himself a second to grin at the man before him, before it disappeared. A separate whine began to build.

He looked Dukat in the eye; ensuring that he would understand what he would say next. "I'm not." A light began to over take the group, and every muscle in his body began to tense. He dropped the weapon off the pad, as he felt himself becoming weak. Just as the room faded to white and a soft whine filled his ears, he saw Dukat shout something. And then, the room was consumed in flames.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"I can't disengage the docking clamps, the magnetic locks aren't responding!" Shouted ensign F'Ghi from her place at the helm. Behind her sat lieutenant commander Mondel Carsoms within the captain's command chair, though, he wasn't fairing much better. The bridge jolted once again, as it had since this entire situation had begun just minutes earlier, and with every passing second, the waves of shocks came stronger than the ones before them.

The ships operations officer slapped the comm. switch on his arm rest. "Bridge to Engineering; the docking clamps aren't disconnecting, we need to get them undone before the station tears itself apart!" As before, he was met only with static.

"Engineering!" The rear hatch to the bridge opened, and out ran lieutenant Karlin. The deck beneath them rocked harder, and the older man ran to his station.

"Communications are out throughout the forward star-drive section of the ship!" He said as he activated his station. "I've already got someone from engineering working on it!" Abcde looked over to the older officer, in worry. He'd taken a fairly heavy beating when they first fell through the rift, and she was sure that he'd broken more then a few bones. Although, before she could continue with her worrying, another jolt--this time much stronger than the ones before it, grabbed a hold of her, causing her console to begin blaring another warning. She turned back to its silver tactile surface. An eyebrow went up, and she stopped working. The commander must have noticed through all of the chaos what she had seen, but wasn't reporting.

"Ensign...what's wrong?" She didn't respond; she didn't know how. As she was trying to formulate an answer for her superior, he instead came to her.

Looking over her shoulder as he approached, he said: "Abcde, what are you seeing?" He leaned down onto the back of her chair, but she didn't budge. Her seat jerked along with the rest of the ship, but she didn't care...all that mattered to her at that very moment was what her console was displaying.

"ABCDE!" Shouted commander Carsoms. The helmswoman snapped out of her trance; her hands flying over her controls. The chief of operations quietly asked her what had happened, but she ignored it, instead opting to move on before he forced her.

"Sir; I suggest we get whoever's on weapons to bring the dorsal rail-guns to hot standby--if the manual disconnect fails, then we'll have to shear that part of the station off!" Behind her, the commander was silent, even as another wave rumbled through the ship. For a moment, she was afraid that he wouldn't give her this distraction from her discovery, but then she felt the pressure of his weight leave her back-rest.

"You heard her! Crewman, have the foreword armory load the rounds! Mister Karlin, I don't care if you have to set-up a string, and a couple of tin cans, I want to be able to communicate with Engineering in real-time!"

A sharp 'Yes Sir!' resounded from the two officers, as they both quickly went to work. Abcde closely monitored the situation with the docking clamps, as well as keeping a close eye on their hulls structural integrity. The tremors that they were feeling may only have been about a third of what was being felt at the center of _Sentok Nor_, just above what lieutenant commander Carsoms had been able to make-out as the stations power-plant, but if they didn't shake apart along with the station from the tremors first, then the subsequent blast from the build-up in the stations core would. Just then, another blast--this time far more powerful in force than any of the others, tore through the _Raven_. Abcde was thrown atop of her console as something impacted the back of her chair. She laid there, her mind a blur. Her eyes burned, as a golden-hued light filled the forward section of the bridge. Faintly, in the distance, she could hear the wailing klaxons of multiple alert sirens mixing together, and everything in front of her was blurred at best, nevertheless, she picked herself up and forced herself to focus. As the ensign's vision cleared, and the bells in her head faded to a dim ringing, she began to focus on the figure in front of her.

"Ensign F'Ghi; commander Carsoms, are you alright?!" Said one of the figures that had emerged when the light faded.

_'I must be hallucinating...the captain didn't just appear out of thin-air just now, did he?'_ She thought to herself as she stared into the face of captain Farlind. He too looked worse for wear, but that was beside the point.

"Captain, the foreword hull can't take much more of this kind of seismic stresses. Integrity in the foreword fuselage has already degraded to forty percent!" Shouted Chalen from the tactical console. Both Abcde and the captain looked at her in alarm.

At that very moment, F'Ghi made the decision: '_I don't care anymore whether or not this is a hallucination; I not going to let it stop me from carrying out my duty as the ship's navigator!'_ The time between her own mental resolution, and when she retook control of her station was infinitesimal. Within seconds she had called up everything from thruster control, to disabling and disconnecting their side of the docking clamps. Now came the hard part: Waiting.

"Our side of the docking clamps has released, captain, but the station's clamps aren't responding to the disconnection! We're stuck in place!" The rocking seemed to have stopped for a moment, only to return again with greater force. She could feel another presence behind her, and for a moment she thought it was lieutenant commander Carsoms, but all of that changed as soon as she heard his voice.

"Your computer network isn't communicating properly with the station; _Sentok Nor's_ computer uses isolinear relays to route and store data, but we still use binary encoding!" Explained the grey-skinned reptilian man whom had followed captain Farlind, and his escort. F'Ghi did a double take, quickly scanning the bridge for the one person who was missing.

"Where's commander Shelotskov?" The captain didn't change his visage at her query, but his silence told her enough--something had happened.

"It's useless! We'll have to tear off the docking ring!" Shouted the Cardassian man. Another wave rippled through the deck, and another alert began to drone on in the chaotic march.

"Foreword hull integrity failing at critical!"

"-We'll have to be precise about this; if we cause too much stress from blasting, the foreword compartments will fall apart from the increased seismic stresses!" Shouted Captain Farlind over the chorus of audio alarms and verbal warnings. The ensign turned back to the station and was about to prepare herself for the worst, when a series of lurches and mechanical whirring resounded through the ship. She checked her instruments.

"Did I hear what I think I just heard?" Asked lieutenant Karlin from the aft of the bridge. A soft beep began sounding from her console, just as half of the alarms stopped their clamoring.

"I don't believe it," She said in excitement. "The stations released us! We're falling freely under thruster control!" More of the alarms went silent, as the entire bridge crew awaited new orders, but Farlind still seemed to be concentrating on something in the distance. Even though the main screen wasn't functioning, and filled with static, the captain was looking into it as if he could make out some kind of shape. The lights on the bridge were low, but Abcde could still make out his reflection clearly enough in silver surface of her side console. Then, his look changed to one of worry.

"F'Ghi, activate sub-light engines: Maximum thrust; get us away from the station!" She didn't take the time to question his order, she simply did as she told, and eased the flow of power to the engines so as not to risk pulling too many G's too quickly. As they approached maximum available thrust, the sensor contact of the station _Sentok Nor_ began to fall away from her sensor display, which represented everything in three-dimensions. She grimaced as she realized the course she had subsequently put them on around the planet.

The ensign could feel as she was pushed gently into the back of her seat, but her concentration was quickly broken as a new set of alerts sounded from the rear of the bridge; this time of lieutenant Karlin's communications station.

"Captain, we're receiving a message from a small craft that's following us..." He trailed off as he listened into the earpiece, gently pushing it closer to his ear.

"I-It's the Chief! He's requesting permission to dock!" That announcement stunned everyone, particularly the helmswoman, but then she pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes.

"I thought there was something off during that little emergency..." Despite her little quip, the captain remained uncharacteristically serious, though his reflection did soften somewhat at her words.

"Tell him he has permission...then have him report to the briefing room, I want to talk to him directly." Abcde swallowed. As light as the captain liked to run things, the graveness in his tone didn't sound reassuring to her.

Just as he got up from his command chair, and began making his way to the adjacent room, he paused mid-stride and turned back to face the front of the bridge. "As soon as he get's back here, I want all of the senior staff to join us; Leget Demar, ensign Chalen, please follow me. We've got a lot to discuss."


	6. Lathe biosas

**Disclaimer:** Alright, its finnally here! The sixth chapter of Raven, and by far, the longest! It's been some month though...I've been working on all of my projects, and I'm currently getting ready to wrap some of them up, including another story which is essentially the continuation of this one. Well, enough of me, let's get this disclaimer overwith: I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein...cannon or no. Only the things which I create here, so DON'T SUE ME! . . . Read and Review!

_"The reactor is coming on-line..."_ Said a familiar voice from far away. The Chief looked around at his surroundings; he was back on the Raven; in the engineering bay. Everything was just as it was when he started the day...Bright, new...whole.

_"Confirmed, SPL reactor operating at one-hundred percent."_ The Chief roamed around the cylindrical room, walking the rounded floor until he was standing before the main entryway, upside-down. Everyone whom walked into the domain of his creation for the very first time always became disoriented. After all, he had robbed them of any sense of what was up and what was down with the room's very design. He glanced over the Chief engineering station were saw lieutenant commander Maxwell working feverishly. A part of him wanted to lash out and punch the man, while at the same time, the other wanted to do the same to himself. If it hadn't been for his experience with such episodes, then he would have done so, or at least tried.

_"We've got a fault in the secondary collision regulator...I'm locking it down and re-sequencing the tertiary regulator to compen-"_

_"-The tertiary regulator's got a bad relay valve...Switch to the quadrantary regulator instead." _Said Commander Maxwell, cutting the other engineer off. The Chief recognized him as Lieutenant Muhammad Kuwain, the assistant engineer, but that wasn't what caught his attention, not really.

_'Wait a second. The main particle regulator disabled itself when we brought the particle collider to ten percent generation, and the quadrantary regulator failed when the computer made the automatic switch-over...'_ He said to inwardly to himself. He had built the main regulator to have a trio of back-ups, each one designed to have a tolerance of up to one-hundred eight percent particle generation, so they're not that easily damaged, unless...

_'Of course! Maxwell was working the final installation maintenance on that system just before the launch! If the core were to over-load, then the engine exhaust would spew toxic levels of radiation into the atmosphere like a giant gas bomb! But the safeties on the anti-matter storage tanks were also disabled...the system would initiate the auto ejection-' _He stopped dead in his train of thoughts, mentally pulling up a list of all the systems which had failed during their initial accident. The answer became clear.

_"That's it! Maxwell and Martin weren't the only saboteurs!" _The Chief exclaimed aloud. Realizing what he'd done, as well as how quiet the entire bay had become. Taking a moment to check, he saw that the entire engineering bay was watching him. Deciding that he seen enough, the Chief walked over to the main doors to the bay. Hitting the open switch, he turned back to face the rounded room.

_"Thank you Maxwell ya' bastard...you've just given me what I need to save the ship."_

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"So...this is the Raven." Said Z'Quaz in amazement, as both her and doctor Velmon followed Chief Petty Officer Sasqua Dove, ensigns Kigh, and Martin, and The Chief, as well as a squad of four armed security personnel down the curving corridors of the ship. The silver metal reflecting the dim light was enough to almost make the walls around her glow wholly, lighting their path.

"I know she's not exactly what you're used to, but pretty much all of the technology here is the most advanced stuff that our world has to offer..." Said the Chief, as they passed by a pair of crewmen working on the innards of the ship laid bare through an open piece of wall paneling. Z'Quaz stopped to watch as the pair pulled the cover off of a processing node, revealing equipment of mind-boggling complexity beyond.

She stared in near-shock. "Incredible...you've developed an integrated circuit of this complexity!" The lavender-skinned woman could feel the Chief's eyes watch her with curiosity as the two maintenance engineers stopped at her exclamation. Her arm reached out to touch the casing to the device, feeling the hum of power which it held. Her eyes went wide as she pulled her hand back.

"There's barely any heat coming off of it!" The surprise in her voice resonated through the corridor, followed by a low chuckle from the Chief's direction.

"I hope not," He said slightly in amusement. "I used a special heat-absorbing material to encase the circuits." Z'Quaz turned her surprise to the Chief, but instead of catching him grinning at her in pride, he was staring ahead, off into the distance as if he were looking into the heart of a power reactor. If it weren't for her experience with him-or rather, with his 'duplicate' as she had decided to call him that she knew better. For a moment, an old memory superimposed itself over the world around her. The man she saw before her was of the same height, had the same hair, and an almost identical build, but his uniform was a dark-green jumpsuit instead of silver, making the tone of his skin take on a more rust color in the dimmer light she was used to. Reality reasserted itself as the Chief resumed his course down the corridor. This Markus seemed to be the polar opposite of the one she'd known; this one was colder, and didn't take to smiling that well. She'd only seen him grin twice since they'd met; the first time slightly scaring her, and the second...well, it was warm, but it also felt somehow sad to her.

'Maybe now isn't the time to be thinking about that.' She said inwardly to herself, and before Z'Quaz realized it, they were standing in front of a closed metal door.

'Well, here it is, the moment of truth...'

**xxxxXXXXxxxx**

The Chief stood before the steel door to the briefing room, watching it as if he were expecting whatever was beyond it to open their bonded seems at his very presence and attack them. He turned to the pair of aliens standing behind him, turning the words in his head over and over again until, finally, he found the right order, and began shuffling them around once again.

With a light sigh, nearly invisible to those behind him, he said: "Captain Farlind will likely want to speak with you two right away," he turned to the lavender-skinned woman standing directly behind him as he continued. "...So you and doctor Velmon should sit at the very end of the table, directly across from the captain." He may not have known her for very long, but the Chief could tell that Z'Quaz was holding back a grin, most likely as a reaction his serious tone. He'd heard bits and pieces as to how she knew him, or rather, an alternate version of him from another universe, and how much he resembled that version of him, but really, he didn't care about that at the moment...at least, that's what he kept telling himself. Deciding that he'd given enough time to his musings, The Chief tapped the controls latched onto the side of the doorframe. As the rest of the group walked in and took their seats, Z'Quaz seemed more interested in the glass panels on the other side of the room.

Pointing to them, she said: "I hope you have at least two foot-thick lead panel covers for those things..." Amusement rippled its way back to the fore-front as he let out a low snicker.

Pointing his thumb behind him at the room's windows, he answered: "Don't worry...our power-core emits an EM buffering field around the ship, so cosmic radiation isn't a problem. And yes, we do have coverings for them, though they're not completely made of lead-"

"-Let me guess, you used a mixture compound of lead and one or more metals to make a sturdier, and thinner cover." Despite himself, and how she'd just cut him off, the engineer tolerated how a grin began spreading across his lips.

'...Why does this feel so much like déjà vu...and, why does she remind me of someone I know?' The Chief asked inwardly to himself. All of her mannerisms just seemed so familiar, but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

"She's good," Said the captain, breaking him out of his musings. Standing just in front of his seat at the head of the table, he turned to the commander. "Where'd you pick her up?" The Chief rolled his eyes involuntarily at the question as if it was too laborious to explain it to him.

"She's the one that saved our lives over on Sentok'Nor," He said off-handedly.

"Z'Quaz helped us get The Chief into the shuttle after the Cardassians shot him-I thought it was only fair to bring her with us." Replied a shorter woman from the back of the group. Feek rolled his eyes involuntarily at her comment, not needing to look at Farlind to know how much his grin had grown. Before he could shoot a warning of a retort back to Sasqua, he noticed the lavender-skinned woman taking a few step forward until she reached the Captain, and stretched out her hand.

"You're the captain right?" She asked with a reflection of his smile. "I'm Second Lieutenant Z'Quaz, acting Chief sensor operator, and technical supervisor of the USAF Phoenix, XCN zero-one." Commander Feek watched as the amusement in Farlind's eyes melting into confusion as his mind processed what she had just said. It didn't really affect The Chief when he'd first heard the story-not as much as his silent musings anyway-but it kept feeling like he was missing a very important piece. The doors to the briefing room opened, allowing the in-flow of half a dozen more people, all of whom Markus recognized as the ships senior staff. Everyone looked worse for wear, even though they'd only left the safety of the International Space Station's mooring clamps no more than seven hours ago. But one of the room's inhabitants, ensign F'Ghi, looked worst of all.

"Alright children, now that everyone's here, let's all take a seat." Said the captain cheerily. Had The Chief not known better, then he would have mistaken the graveness of his tone to be a warning for him to brace himself for what was about to come. "We've got a lot to discuss..." And as soon as the words left his mouth, Feek wished he had.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"I almost can't believe it..." Muttered a clearly confused crew woman in disbelief; the memories of what she'd just heard replaying over and over in her head. True, she had been on the station with the woman in question when they'd met her, but she was a little too busy running for her life when the introductions were made. Still, her story was just almost too fantastic to believe.

The lavender-skinned woman grinned widely as she adjusted her gaze. "It's incredible, but honestly, who could make something like this up?" The beginnings of a wide grin were making its way to captain Farlind's lips. Z'Quaz, as she had been calling herself since she had fully introduced herself, had explained how she was from an alternate reality, where Earth-or Jaquora, as her people called it-never developed sentient life, but instead, was colonized by her people several centuries ago. She had gone on to say that her people had lived peacefully on that world until the Grigesque had appeared, and began annexing the system; enslaving her people. But what Sasqua found the most astounding, was that it wasn't until a vessel appeared in orbit of the planet from seemingly out of nowhere. She stole a glance over to the two Cardassians occupying the room, and noticed that both seemed to be equally intent on listening to her story.

"Never the less," interrupted lieutenant Karlin from the other side of the curved table. "Unless someone here can come up with a plausible, alternative explanation for everything that we've all seen, I don't think we have any other choice than to believe it." Of course he was right, she didn't understand how the engine system could have created something as improbable as a quantum rift, but with all of the variables that the alien woman's story implied, the likeliness went up. Even if it was only just a nudge. Looking across the table, she noticed the Raven's navigator, ensign F'Ghi visibly relax. She had seemed tense ever since the meeting had started, and the paleness in her complexion, which was now subsiding a little, only made it all the more obvious.

Their comm officer, commander Carsoms must have noticed this too. "Is everything alright ensign?" He asked. The question itself may have seemed innocent enough, but the way her paleness returned full force made the answer that she wasn't, more than obvious.

She looked up to the commander, and then glanced around the entire table before letting her eyes rest on captain Farlind. "I-" She paused, trying to find words that weren't coming very easily to her. "Before we decoupled from Sentok Nor, I had the nav-computer run an areal scan to try and plot us the safest escape course, but..." It looked as if she was struggling, internally, to make the words come out; as if not speaking about whatever it was she had found would in some way make it disappear.

"...The planet below us is Earth." Finished Z'Quaz. The words struck her so hard, that for a moment, Sasqua could have sworn her heart had turned to ice.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"...What?" Crewman Sasqua said aloud. Her voice quivered in frozen pain. Not that the youthful helms woman hadn't done so already. Abcde shot a look over their 'guest' demanding an explanation from her. But she wasn't all that angered when one of the Cardassians sitting at the table spoke up instead.

"The work of the Grigesque." Spoke doctor Velmon. The knot in her gut which she had felt so much earlier returned at full force, but she ignored it, and the urge to run out of the room so that she could at least hear the man out.

"When we first encountered the Grigesque, they were only a single ship...heavily damaged, but not disabled," Began the Leget beside him with a sullen visage. He continued. "Our initial attempts at contact were a warning that they had entered our space, a demand to know how they had gotten so deep into our territory, and then for them to leave immediately. When they didn't comply, we fired a warning shot at them, and then-"

"-They destroyed all of our ships without breaking as much as a sweat." Finished Doctor Velmon. Abcde wasn't really sure what that meant, but she could guess, and that scared her. The doctor continued on. "By the time we were able to reach a cease-fire agreement with them, much of our empire had been thrown into chaos from the news that one ship was tearing through our forces so easily; many of the worlds we had conquered had begun to revolt because of it. So, as a show of good faith, the commander of the Grigesque warship decided to make an example of one of those worlds in revolt..." The warp-theorist stopped mid-sentence, obvious unable to continue. The helms woman could feel her anger rising quickly within her, but before she could explode in a fit of outrage, commander Carsoms beat her to it.

"SO YOU JUST LET THEM WIPE OUT AN ENTIER PLANET?" The arm of his uniform was torn off at the seam were the sleeve met at the shoulder, so the flag representing his country of service was gone, leaving behind half of his undershirts sleeve, and a trio of red gashes. Though they had already begun scabbing over, the beginnings of several little red droplets could be seen seeping around the already dried layer of blood above. Another pair of hands slammed against the top of the table as the other large Cardassian took to his feet.

"We didn't expect them to render the entire planet uninhabitable!" He shouted back. "We just thought that they would attack the larger human settlements and level them, not wipe all life from the surface of the planet!"

"-Oh, and that makes it all better?"

"Commander!" The Chief shouted in a growl, matching the impact of their levels. The young engineer was now sitting up straight in his seat, looking like he would take the operations officer down the moment he so much as twitched the wrong way. The said man turned to the architect.

"Chief, we can't work with these people, they-"

"Shut up lieutenant, I don't want to hear it," Commander Feek said cutting off the other man's retort.

"Obviously these two decided that mass genocide isn't such a good thing, after all, they wouldn't have helped us get away, and they wouldn't be here now telling us everything that happened." Mondel opened his mouth with another retort, but closed it quickly when he realized that the engineers warning glance was more than just an empty promise.

"What's past is past, and there's no point in trying to change it. All that we can do is move on and try to learn as much as we can from our own mistakes..." The Chief looked away from Carsoms; from the entire group, and glanced into the mirror-like finish of the wall behind the table. "...No matter how little that might be." Getting the message, commander Carsoms sat down, defeated, followed by Leget Demar, and The Chief. The entire group was silent for a long minute, giving the helmswoman the chance to gauge their reactions, which ranged from bemusement that lieutenant Z'Quaz displayed, to the solemn, and sullen ones one the rest of the group.

"As inspiring as that speech was, there's still one more thing that I think that you should know...and this puts your reality at risk."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Nope, that won't work..." Said ensign Cho, as she closed out the warning on her work station's monitor. The Chief had originally told her to get as much repaired without him until he got back, but that was well over an hour ago. She had realized early on, that if he didn't make it back quickly, then they wouldn't be able to continue with the repair work, so she had taken the initiative to redouble their efforts on decrypting the main computer. So far though, she would have had better luck taking all of the damaged components apart and learning how they worked that way then telling the rest of the crew how to rebuild them herself. She tried a different algorithm.

*Initiating Process*, read the screen. Another box in the background kept track of everything that lock-out was doing. When the access activity levels once again went above the red line, the same warning popped up on the screen as it shut down the program. The ensign sighed as she rubbed her exhausted cheek.

"You better not be doin' what I think yer doin!" Said an irritated voice. Cho's head snapped to the left were it collided with The Chief's. She yelped as she toppled sideways out of her chair, and onto the hard deck. Her face hurt were she had hit the other engineer, so she rubbed it with her hand while apologizing profusely. No sooner had she begun had the string of obscenities which were pouring out of the Chief's mouth registered. Looking up, she saw him holding his nose; a stream of red flowing between his fingers. She pulled her hand away from her cheek to see the glob of blood on her palm.

"GOD DAMMIT! SHIT! Watch what the hell yer doin' Cho!" He shouted with a muffled voice. As he pulled his hands away pull out a cloth from his pocket did she see the true extent of her un-handiwork. The entire area of his mouth was covered in blood, and more was pouring out from his nose. His hands had caught much of the red liquid, which smeared on the cloth he had grabbed onto and held up to his nose.

He locked an angry gaze on her, but sighed as he looked away to the consol where she had been working. "Have you made any progress?" Cho stared at him for a second, still lost in her shock. It wasn't until he turned back and locked an annoyed gaze with hers.

"Well?" The ensign snapped out of it at the question, quickly pushing herself up and taking over the controls to the consol.

"Not much Chief...I was able to unlock a few of the command codes for the engine systems, but that's it." She pulled up a list of the algorithms she had used. "I took into account that the program might have been written by someone else, then latter augmented here on the ship before it was implemented, but the rest of this just doesn't make any sense-"

"-We have more than one saboteur on board." Said the Chief easily, once again surprising the ensign nearly into shock.

"What?" The thought that someone else onboard could have been responsible for all of this made her feel physically sick. It was bad enough to remember what commander Maxwell had done, but the sense of betrayal that she began to feel weigh down on her was unbearable.

The Chief stared at the screen intently. "From what I've been able to find out, most of the original engineering staff were working as spies for one organization or another." His voice was as low as a whisper, but to her, it sounded as loud as a scream. She opened her mouth to say something else, but the Chief moved to the station adjacent to hers, and began working intently before she could bring her latest query to bear.

"I'm putting the repair schedule on the back-burner, for now, I want you to begin making the following changes to the indicated systems...and I'll need them done within the hour," The Chief turned back to once again lock his own intent gaze with hers, though this time, it didn't feel as if he were warning her with his look.

She gulped. "Understood sir." Guessing what he was getting the rest of them into. The Chief picked one of the PDA's that was sitting in a recharge slot, and began uploading his list of modifications into its internal memory. When that was complete, he handed it to her, and turned quickly on his heels toward the door. Cho looked over the PDA, quickly skimming all of the systems the Chief had indicated. She had to do a double-take when she noticed the sheer amount of changes the Chief wanted.

"Chief!" She called out, but he had already left the bay in a quick pace, and the doors closed quickly behind him.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

Heavy footfalls of the Chief's boots struck the deck hard in the ships simulated gravity of zero-point nine-seven-three G's as he marched down the corridor of deck five. Wiping the remaining blood from his nose before it began to crust-over. Normally he would have stayed to answer any questions the engineer in-charge would have to the changes he made, but these weren't normal circumstances. Memories of the conference, still fresh in his mind, played over and over...especially the final few minutes.

~~Flashback~~

The meeting was just about to end, and they finally had a plan of action. But that didn't mean that the Chief didn't like it...

"So, if there aren't any objections-"

"Yes there are." Interrupted the Chief, standing from his seat. "We've still got a ton of damage, especially to the SPL-drive, and with the computer still locked-out, repairs are going slow with only a partially-trained crew working on half-finished schematics. I can't even guarantee that we'll have enough power to break out of orbit in forty minutes!" He had a pretty long list of all the things it their escape plan that they just simply didn't have the power to accomplish at the moment, but his experience in dealing red tape, and panels of probe queries into what was working with the project, and who and what wasn't cooperating. So he simply reserved it within his personal arsenal.

"I have full faith in you Chief...you thrive on improbable deadlines." Replied Z'Quaz. Feek turned to the humanoid woman in surprise, though his was of a different kind than most of the people in the room.

"Don't you mean, 'imposable'?" Asked ensign Chalen from across the table. Their passenger shot her a sly grin as she turned to respond.

"Not when you're talking about the Chief...He doesn't believe anything in the impossible, just that things are highly improbable." Something about that didn't sit right with him, the way she said that. It sounded familiar, like he'd heard it somewhere else before, but he just couldn't place were his sense of Déjà vu kept coming from.

He interjected. "Actually, I only say that things that seem impossible are really just improbable." The purple woman's grin only broadened wider into a smile as she heard this.

"So, will one hour be enough for you Chief?" Asked Farlind as he too stood from his end of the table. Feek turned it over in his mind for a second, the original plan was for him to get enough repairs done within forty minutes, but he had complained and cussed his point to death. But their plan only had a finite window of success, and time just wasn't on their side. So he made his call.

"Maybe...I'll have to make the modifications to grappler-control system myself, and if Sasqua can work with doctor Velmon on his shuttle, we might-MIGHT be able to pull it off..." He noticed the captain's look of satisfaction, and winced internally as he realized that he'd just walked into another one of his captain's annoying traps, but then, he thought of one of his own...

"I also want mister Martin to supervise the decryption of the main computer." Although he did get some of the response he'd been looking for, Farlind's expression remained more-or-less the same.

"Alright then, if that's it then...Let's get to work people!" He said with an almost giddy tone. Again, Feek couldn't wince inwardly at the abnormally up-beat humor of his commanding officer. Before he could even shoot him his glair of annoyance, the captain was already walking briskly out the still opening door. Everyone else began to filter out, and he was going to follow them, when someone grabbed onto his arm. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Z'Quaz.

"Chief, I want to help...Let me work with you!" She said. The commander huffed a heavy sigh as he turned back to the door.

"How much do you know about robotic engineering?" He asked. The lavender-skinned woman briefly looked away in thought before turning back.

"Not much...But I'm study!" She said eagerly. "I learned everything I know about physics and engineering in the months that I spent with your duplicate, there's not a single doubt in my mind that I can do the same here!" His head snapped back to look at her, his annoyance at her constant insisting that she knew he was someone else.

"And how do you know that, hm? You keep talking about this great, brilliant scientist that always knows what to do at the right time, but I'm not him. I don't know him...I've never met him!" Although his rant was coming out easily, the lieutenant in front of him seemed completely unaffected. Then she did something that he hadn't expected; she grabbed him by his shoulders.

Her voice dropped several optics, as she said: "Because I know..." Her arms pulled him close into a partial embrace, and she placed her had above one of his shoulders, but what she said once she had gotten close enough, was enough to stop him dead in his tracks...

"...That Markus Feek isn't your real name."

~~End Flashback~~

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"AHH! Prokljanite jeto..." Groaned out a pained voice from the bottom of the blackened pit. Looking around his darkened surroundings, the man pulled himself up. Looking around his dark surroundings, he realized that he was trapped inside the elevator shaft. [1]

Reaching for his communicator, he tapped it. "Shelotskov to Raven." He said. The commander glanced around the shaft to try and find a way out as he waited, but when he didn't get an answer, he tapped the 'channel open' switch again.

"Commander Shelotskov to USS Raven, please respond. Again, no answer. A list of possibilities ran through his mind, and most of them, he didn't like. Looking up, he saw a row of red-blinking lights illuminating a pair of doors below them. To its right, he also realized that there was a ladder.

"Guess the only way to go is up."

~~~XXX~~~

[1] "Prokljanite jeto" is the direct Russian translations for "Damn it".


	7. Hidden Secrets

**Disclaimer:** Okay, I know it's been a long time since my last update…but a whole lot's been happening for me lately. To make up for my absence, I'll be going on a little releasing spree within the next two weeks or so! Enough of my little rant, let's get this disclaimer outta' the way, shall we? I don't own Star Trek, or any characters or technologies therein, cannon or no, so **DON'T SUE ME!**

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

_"Patriarch, we've completed the transfer of all station operations! We now have full control of all of _Sentok'Nor's_ systems,"_ Reported one of the few Grigesquian soldiers on the station. Patriarch Xelmekrow stood at the edge of the room, watching with careful satisfaction as one of the many goals of final plan came one step closer to his reach. Stepping down from the doorway, Xelmekrow grinned manically at the master-control station which now belonged to him.

"Excellent...what is the status for the rest of the station?" He asked his soldier standing on the other side of the screen. The century's stature changed in the slightest, indicating that he was nervous.

_"The situation here is...less then ideal. We may have control over all of the key systems, but many of the remaining Cardassian soldiers, as well as groups of the station's civilian inhabitants have refused to cooperate, and are holding themselves up in several key areas."_ Troublesome indeed; the Patriarch rubbed one of his clawed fingers against his chin as he thought of how best to deal with the situation.

_"I've ordered some of our people to begin a system-wide purge of all of the effected areas. In fact they've started working on-"_

"-Leave them be," Xelmekrow answered, cutting his own soldier off. The man on the other side of the screen started back in shock.

_"Is that wise sir? Forgive me for speaking out of place, but aren't they a liability to the success of our mission?"_ Xelmekrow sneered as his annoyance surged through him, scaring the soldier on the other side.

"You're lucky I need you over there for the time being, or else I would have you removed!" Seeing the fear on his subordinates face, the patriarch felt a grin start to take control of his world. He could never tire of seeing that look; so many times he'd seen that look of terror, and yet, he felt so alive every time he saw it. "Of course they're a liability, but we need them to draw out the _Raven_...but for the time being, jam any and all radio and subspace transmissions in and out of the station." It took a moment, but eventually the soldier on the other side began to understand what he was getting at. If only it wasn't just a moment too long for his tastes.

"When I give the order, I want you to drop the dampening field." On the other side, he watched as the soldier opened his mouth, about to say something, but then quickly closed it and nodded.

_"Understood Patriarch... Command, out."_ Xelmekrow grinned manically at his own thoughts, thinking of what was to come. Oh sure, this might not be the right Chief, but never the less, this should prove to be just as easily satisfying.

"This is the Chief's one weakness," He said to no one but himself in the empty room; "he can never resist a cry for help."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Crewman, how many LN-2 tanks do we have left?" Asked the chief as he examined the valve from a pulled piece of tubing; wiping away the carbon which had built up on the interior of the nozzle as he made his assessment of whether or not they could stand something as big as they were planning.

"Huh?" The crewman said with stunned disbelief, "Is that one empty already?" The crewman asked. The Chief stopped what he was doing to shoot the maintenance crewman a sharp confirming nod, only realizing how far his jaw was hanging open when the maintenance officer made a full turn away from the grappler system controls.

"It can't be; I just replaced that tank no more than an hour ago!" The crewman's face turned beat red as he continued his banter at how much trouble he went through to replace that last tank. The commander huffed in annoyance, partially at the seemingly never-ending-story the non-com behind him was reciting, but also at the prospect of what this latest revelation meant.

_'Greaaaat...so now there's a leak somewhere in the system,' _The Chief said inwardly to himself as he rubbed the side of his face in exhausted announced. He tried ignoring the fatigue which had been building up throughout the day as he turned back to the crewman, making note of the rank insignia on his shoulder: a grade four warrant officer, and tried to recall the crew roaster for this section.

"Crewman Bott, right?" The crewman nodded in acknowledgement, which The Chief would have found refreshing had he not been preoccupied by the growing list of repairs and modification that he still needed to make. "I'll take care of the problem here; you just go and get a spare tank out of storage." Bott eyed him suspiciously, ready to retort in his own annoyance, but after a moment-and a grave glair from the younger engineer- he gave a quick "Understood, sir," and left the room. Again The Chief huffed in annoyance as he went to work tracking down the problem.

"Hmm...Let's see. The hydraulic pressurizes have been putting out a steady pressure reading, so it has to be somewhere in the-" A pair of hands covered his eyes before he could finish tracing the lines. For a split second his body tensed as he subconsciously entered his defensive mode, but then decided to wait a few seconds for his intruder to identify themselves. When he didn't hear a voice telling him to either keep quiet, nor another hand or two trying to restrain him, he decided that it was probably alright to relax a little.

As he'd suspected, his intruder said what he'd guessed what was going on: "-Guess who." They said in a familiar, high-pitched and comforting voice. Gently, The Chief let himself relax as he felt the playful smile in the voice.

"Sasqua," He said. "I though I told you to help Velmon make the modifications to his ship." She giggled as she pulled her hands away, restoring Feek's sight. Turning around to face her, he was greeted by her warm smile, which he had always found comforting.

She let out an amused giggle as she said: "Bingo on all accounts." Feek rubbed the side of his face as she continued her cheerful banter, deciding it best not to press the issue of how the work for their plan was progressing at the moment. Partially because of the secret that their 'Guest' had told him about was still resonating through his mind, and that made him uneasy.

"I wanted to run something by you; Doctor Velmon's shuttle uses an isolinear-based data transmission network...It's similar to an optical network, except it uses photons to carry electrical data transmission instead of using a converter to encode then decode the data before and after transmission, so my question is this: if we were to install a transmission converter in the shuttle, then wouldn't it increase the chances of the shuttle surviving when we begin the final part of the operation?" The question was straight-foreword, and it made a lot of sense...after all, they only needed to deactivate the stations shields in order to complete their plan, but he'd already considered all of this, and even in retrospect with a second opinion, he still could only come to the same conclusion. [1]

"The thought had crossed my mind, and yes, it does seem like a good idea at first glance-"

"-Then why do we need to add something like a tauon particle generator to their weapons systems? Why not just adapt their existing technology?" Asked Sasqua, cutting off The Chief before he could finish. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Feek reached for the UV sensor in his tool kit. [2]

"Because if this is going to have any chance of working, then we'll need to make it look like we've found a way to integrate our technology with theirs!" He spat out in annoyance. Finally finding his sensor, he immediately went to work scanning the lines, looking for any kind of unique disturbances in the atmosphere.

Then something dawned on him... "Was that the only thing you wanted to talk to me about, Miss. Dove?" Sasqua snickered lightly at the question. The Chief stopped running his test, as he turned back to the warrant officer behind him.

"Okay, you got me," She said as she began to rub the ring on her smallest finger; an old habit that she'd had for the longest time. "I also wanted to see you." Something inside the Chief made him feel somewhat lighter her saying this, so he let himself relax just a little; but looking into her face forced a surge of fear to strike his heart, as images that he wished he could forget began playing over again in his mind's eye. Pain struck his scarred hand, as an image of a blood-soaked floor plastered itself over the world. The image was gone in an instant, but the pain and fear that it enticed remained.

"Markus?" Asked Sasqua in a worried tone. She locked her gaze with his for a brief moment, before The Chief broke the connection and turned back to the open alcove.

"I've been thinking...maybe, when we get back to our Earth, you should go back to Jrenkoba's..." His heart skipped a beat as the words left his mouth. He tried to steel himself as best he could, but weather or not that was the case, he just didn't know. He busied himself with trying to find the leak again, but he just couldn't concentrate.

Sasqua laughed behind him. "Ha ha ha...Is this some kind of a joke, Markus?" She asked. Looking into the polished metal of the bulkhead, he saw both of their reflections; but more than that, he saw the worry hidden behind her smile. He could feel his heart breaking, just as it had so many times before in the past-only this time, it was him who was causing the pain. "I've always said that we'd need to work on that sense of humor, but now it looks like I've still got my work cut-out for-"

"-I'm not joking Sasqua!" He snapped. Feek did everything he could to reign in his temper as he tried to calm himself, but when his outburst was met with only silence, he just couldn't help himself from turning turn half way back to his friend.

Before he even realized it, she reached her out-stretched hand and placed it on his shoulder, "All the more reason why I can't just let you do this on your own." He could hear the granite in her voice. The rock-solidness which she only uses when she unleashed her protective side. "I'm your foster sister Markus, there's no way-"

He cut her off; "No Sasqua! You _are_ my sister; my only family! There's no reason for you to get any more involved in this than you already are!" The Chief's voice felt horse from his outburst, but it didn't matter to him, because no sooner had he finished, than did he see her rearing herself for a comeback, so, he continued before she could.

"How could I let you? Even if we _do_ survive long enough to make it back to our Earth, what then?" He clenched his jaw as he fought back his own grief. "...Chances are, the same people who tried to destroy the _Raven_ will try again, and then-" He calmed himself down, as turned back to the alcove, "...and then, they'll come after me, and anyone who I'm close to!" The Chief growled out the last part of the sentence, not wanting to say it. To him, saying it felt like acknowledging something horrible, but this was something that just couldn't be ignored. Staring at the UV sensor in his hand, the engineer couldn't bring himself to just start the test again. In the silence that followed, a warm, and wet feeling began to spread through his chest. He had braced himself for it when this all began, but that didn't help the pain that accompanied it.

The Chief said inwardly, _'But that's not the whole truth...' _No, there was so much more that he wanted to say. _'There are so many things that you just don't know; that I keep hidden. So much of my past that's shrouded in darkness, even to me. My dreams; my nightmares...things that I can just never tell you. But, it doesn't end there...there's also the fact that now, I'm also your commanding officer, and that means one day, I may have to send you on a fools errand and know that you may not-'_ He had to steel himself once again, as another wave of sickly moisture soaked through his chest. _'...I just don't want to lose you...not like them. Not again!'_ A moment of silence hung in the air; behind him, Sasqua remained quiet. Even as she got up to leave, she made no noise-not even the clicking of her boots sounded, or perhaps, simply didn't register to The Chief, he wasn't really sure.

Then she stopped, just before she would have reached the door. "I don't care, Markus...I'm still not going anywhere. You always try to protect everyone at once, but you always forget about yourself. I'm staying, regardless of what happens." The Chief snapped back to the maintenance engineer behind him in shock; eyeing her carefully as she turned a sideways glance back to the commander.

He asked; "What?" But he never received an answer. Instead, he watched as Sasqua hit the door control, and pulled the latch. Staring at the door as it swung free, Feek felt himself fall back into his Riviera of isolation.

Fear bunging the oil in his chest until it nearly disappeared, he muttered; "Shit."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

_'...Dammit Markus! Why do you always have to be like that?'_ Sasqua asked inwardly asked herself as she made her way through the deck five corridors. It had been some time since she had spoken with her little brother; there were times when it seemed like the time-gap between their conversations was decades. Sure, they may have only been foster siblings, but that was beside the point!

"...He always was one to stand his ground." Said a sudden voice. The maintenance officer stopped dead in her tracks, recognizing the owner of the voice. Without neither a moment's hesitation, nor prompting, lieutenant Z'Quaz stepped out from the open doorway to one of the _Raven's_ few empty crew quarters. The alien woman stood there, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, and grinning wanly as she continued; "That little engineer of ours. Though, I wouldn't expect anything less from him...or more for that matter."

Annoyed by the lavender woman, Sasqua asked; "What are you doing here?" Z'Quaz chuckled lightly at the question before walking out from her place in the door way.

"Walk with me Miss Dove," she said with all of the bemusement dying away from her voice, leaving only its serious undertones. Deciding not to wait for the auspicious woman, Sasqua began forging ahead. To her annoyance, the Air force second lieutenant fell quickly into since with her brisk step. They walked in silence, with only the quick thudding of their boots against the deck as the only sound to occupy their minds.

After several seconds of silence, the lavender woman spoke up; "I've been looking over your systems-they're very impressive for a people who haven't even broken the light-barrier yet." Dove felt her cheek twitch in annoyance.

"Yeah well, this ship was supposed to be our test-bed for that...not that we'll ever get to do that now." She spat out. Z'Quaz only let out a slight chuckle as a reply, much to her annoyance.

"I've also had a glance at your non-combat systems; they're very imaginative, even for someone like The Chief." Sasqua stopped mid-step as she heard those words. The lieutenant however, continued on for a few more meters before following suit with a quick stop of her own.

She half-snarled at their guest, but still tried to keep her voice down as she said; "Just what the hell are you getting at, lieutenant?" The wan grin that lay across the other woman's angled face died just a little.

"I know that you're the one who designed the grappler-control systems, lieutenant...and," she looked away, just for a second, but the crewwoman understood why. It was so obvious, that now she wondered why she hadn't seen it before.

"...Integrated something extra when they were installed." Her head fell in shame. This ship was her little brothers; the work of not only his lifetime, but of another man long in his past. A memory made its way to the surface, and suddenly she was standing not before second lieutenant Z'Quaz on the _USS Raven_, but another human; an old man on Earth. With the ashes of their old home still smoldering behind him. The old man's lips moved, but no sound came out of them. There needn't be any in the first place, because she already knew what those silent words were. Suddenly, she felt something touch her shoulders, and the image began to slowly melt away, giving back in to reality, and oddly enough, the old man whom she had made her promise to, seemed to recede perfectly into the image of their guest. Z'Quaz stood there, smiling a somehow knowing grin at her as she was allowed to return to the present.

"This ship," the lieutenant began, motioning with her free hand with a sweeping arch around the empty corridor, "is a ship full of pain-filled nightmares and haunting memories. I don't care how you come to terms with your fears so long as you don't end up hurting the ones you love the most." Those words, they were exactly the same as the old man's so long ago. When she looked into them, Sasqua felt her shame as it melted away before her gaze. Then the lieutenant did something that was completely unexpected; turned around, and began heading back from were she came, and disappeared.

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

The viewports were dark, almost black; they were currently above the night side of the planet, so not even the stars were visible. Farlind heaved a sigh and looked away. It was almost too painful to keep his eyes on the blackness of the void below his office, so he hit the switch on his desk that was closest to the wall and the shutters began to close. As the metallic covers receded over the clear surface of the reinforced glass, the beeping of his door sounded.

Not giving it a second thought, he called out, "Come in." The steel door slid open, revealing the one it had so quietly hid, although, it came as no surprise to him; he had called for her after all. But still, it would be a little nice every now and then if she could at least humor him.

"Captain Farlind." She said with an impish grin. Something inside returned the calling, but still managed to keep some seriousness in his visage. He admired her for that; she'd obviously had a lot of practice in mastering it.

Grinning, he motioned to one of the chairs sitting beside his desk. "Won't you have a seat?" She returned the gesture, and wrinkled her brow playfully as she sat down. He shot a quick glance into her eyes to see if he could find anything in them he could use, but it was her who got there first.

"You're not convinced the Chief's plan will work, are you?" He was growing to like her; she was good...just as good as him in fact. His grin started to widen as he pulled exactly what he wanted from her gaze without so much trouble. Granted, he'd been prepared to search far and deep for what he needed, but she was pushing everything he needed to know to the forefront of her consciousness.

"Perceptive," he chuckled out; "No, I'm not." The playfulness in his tone began to temper as he continued: "There's something about it that bothers me." He leaned himself against his desk, his hands clasped so his chin could rest in them. Z'Quaz however, didn't seem phased by it. No, in fact, she seemed somehow understanding.

"It shouldn't," she said sweetly; "Markus is a brilliant engineer, but you should already know that." Of course he did; the very thought of doubting him made his skin crawl. He liked being able to trust people, but he wouldn't be sitting here right now if he just simply let himself trust everyone he came across.

"I've found more booby-traps in the ships systems," she said, bringing his train of thought to a screeching halt. He looked at her with a something of a mix between amazement, and horror. But by the time he noticed the look on her face, he started to feel a small, rare hint of impatience wiggling its ugly head in. He was trying to keep his crew safe, and not to mention alive, while she just stood there, grinning the cat that ate the canary!

"Don't worry Farlind, I've already taken the liberty of clearing the majority of them out of the systems...but there's a few more that will take a little more work to get ride of."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

The Chief looked at the felled guards on the floor; their blood, pooling below them. His eyes grew wide, as he realized that they were still alive, and he was the one who'd done this to them.

Shaking his head in fearful disbelief, he muttered; _"No-"_ This couldn't be true; why would he do such a thing! Then he remembered it, the reason why, and he collapsed. His throat burning with acid as he gagged on bile that he could feel trying to force its why up through his wind-pipe.

_"Chief, are you okay?"_ He heard someone behind him ask. He looked behind him to see commander Shelotskov standing there; his uniform stained with blood...his own blood. No, the engineer wasn't alright.

_"I'm sorry commander...I'm so-"_ He tried to apologize, but then he dropped whatever was in his hands without even realizing it: the weapon he'd just used. He stared at it as soon as he'd caught sight of it, and he felt as if all of his strength had abandoned him as he stared at the rusted thing.

_"...I've seen this weapon before!"_ Muttered the Chief._ "It's the one _he_ used, all those years ago!"_

The darkness swirled around him like a storm. Turning back to Shelotskov, The Chief grabbed hold of his arm. _"...No!"_ He shouted;_ "What ever you do, don't let go!"_ The commander looked at him in the eye, his own calm and serene as if he knew something that The Chief didn't.

_"Let me go Chief...I'm needed here."_

Feek snorted as he shot up. He looked down at the surface he'd been laying on; it was a desk. He looked around the room to make sure that's where he really was; he was sitting in the chief engineer's main office on the _Raven_. Sighing partially in relief, the youth leaned back in the chair...he'd must have fallen asleep while reviewing some of the repair logs and maintenance reports. Mentally, he slapped himself for letting himself get so bad. He's working himself to the point of exhaustion...again. How long had he been awake anyway? Forty hours, or was it forty-three...he couldn't even remember. He rubbed the sides of head, trying to focus his tired mind. He still had too many preparations he needed to finish before they could begin with the operation. Sitting foreword, he activated the terminal sitting to the side of the desk.

"Let's see...how much still needs to be...fin...ished..." He gawked at the screen, not believing everything it was showing him. He ran a quick diagnostic, just to make sure that it wasn't a malfunction like the rest of the things on this ship, but when that turned up nothing, the young engineer started to think that he might still be sleeping.

"I can't be, can I?" He asked himself. Almost immediately he began to look around the room to try and find something that looked out of place; anything that might indicate that this was nothing but his subconscious trying to tell him some sort of fantasy that something in his mind was making up, but when he found nothing, he huffed to himself with frustration. He eyed the edge of his desk, thinking back to all of the times that he'd ever dreamed.

"...I wonder," he said aloud. With a single, swift motion, he slammed the side of his hand onto the metal surface of the structure.

"_**FUCK!**_" He shouted as he cradled the now sore limb as strings of obscenities streamed from his mouth. "Well Chief, that was a fucking brilliant idea, wasn't it!" Oh, he was pissed; first at him self for thinking of doing something so damn stupid, then at his judgment for thinking that it was a good idea in the first place. What the hell _was_ he thinking?

Nursing his swelling hand, he glanced back at the screen, now relatively willing to accept what it said as true. "Holy shit," he cussed partially in pain, "just how long was I asleep?" If this list was right, then more or less all of the modifications he'd ordered had been made, and the crew was already well underway with completing repairs. Sure, if the regular alpha-shift crew were all still alive, then they might have gotten this far, but for all rights and purposes, it should have taken at least a another five hours with all of the junior staff, and maintenance personnel they had filling those positions. There was also the fact that they were all working without the schematics from the main-computer, and thus, were working from his own half-finished blue-prints. Then he remembered a certain guest on board...

"...That's right, she knows me better then almost anyone else on board this ship...it makes sense that she would be able to figure-out how to work my systems." She'd been amazed at how much as more advanced the _Raven_ was compared to her own vessel, but she'd also had the benefit of working several other types of technologies from at least half a dozen other species...maybe even more, he didn't know. But the one thing that he did understand was that with this, they could get their plan under way sooner rather then later. He glanced down at the paper-work and half-finished schematics on his desk. He'd been in the middle of making them more legible for the crew to read and easier for them to understand. Granted, he hated using his personal collection like this, but if it could help save their lives and get them home, then he was willing to bite his tongue. Turning back to a small safe he'd brought on board, he reached in through it's open door, and pulled out a small box sitting on its bottom shelf. The box itself was light, despite the heavy look of the wood it was made of.

Gently, he placed his hand on the simple lock keeping the box sealed. "I wish stronger then this. I'm sorry...I'm sorry; I wish I wasn't such a coward," he whispered.

_Erriiieee "Cho to Feek: Chief, are you there?"_ Sounded the voice of his acting assistant over the ships intercom. It seems strange to him; the more he hear her call him chief, the more it feels so natural to him, but not in the sense that he felt that things should be like this. Actually, its the opposite; to him, it feels like he shouldn't be here...that he should have listened to his superiors and left the ship before it was ready to leave orbit. He grinned to himself as he reached for the comm-controls on his desk; he loved screwing with fate...

"I'm here ensign, whadda'ya need?"

_"We've completed basic repairs, and finished making the necessary modifications to the tactical and drive systems. We're ready to go when you are."_ His grin began to fade as he thought about what they were about to do. If this hair-brained plan of his worked, then the entire station of _Sentok'Nor_ would be destroyed, taking many of its inhabitants with it while they slipped safely though the dimensional rift-gate. All this just to get home...

_'No'_ he thought to himself,_ 'its to stop Xel and any other Grigesque from reeking any more havoc across the stars.'_ The familiar dense ball in the pit of his stomach reappeared, as it had so many times before, but he ignored it as he forced himself to look back over at the small wooden box sitting on the other side of the room.

"Understood. Ready all of the engineering safety systems on stand-bye, code beta-blue. I'll tell the captain; Feek out." He closed the channel with the flick of a button, not waiting for his assistant to acknowledge her understanding. Reaching out for the box, he touched the smooth surface of it's dark wooden exterior. Remembering the reason why he'd brought it on board, he gently picked it up, and placed it back on it's shelf in the safe.

As he turned back to his desk, he grabbed his "Show time."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

"Ma'am, we've managed to isolate environmental controls for our people, but that's it," said one of the Cardassian officers from one of the work-consoles in the station's ore-processing facility. A woman standing at the edge of the room turned away from the person she'd been talking to, and faced the old man behind her.

"Well its better then nothing," She answered. "How many of our people have survived?" The Cardassian looked away, and growled under his breath at the question. I didn't like where this was heading...this is far too familiar for me not to do anything to about.

Just as the older man was about to answer the younger woman's question, I cut in, saying: "I'm sorry, but there are more important things that we should be worrying about;" I give each a warning glance as I continue "...such as how to stop the Patriarch." The pair look at each other, but what they did only served to reignite my old suspicions as the younger woman grinned as the older officer cocked his head away with a "che".

"Oh don't worry," she began, "I've got a plan to stop him." Saying that, she turned to her second in command. "Laget, prepare the escape pods-"

"So that's your plan?" Run away, and never come back! What's to stop them from blasting our ships from out of the sky once we launch?" From what I'd learned of them since they rescued me from that lift shaft, she'd been working on a resistance plan to depose of the Grigesque since they first got here. And after all she'd done to stop them, this was what they're hidden ace! The woman turned back to face me, and now she was laughing with that same insanely maniacal glint in her eyes that I'd seen not too long ago.

"Hmhmhm, silly human...when did I ever say that we were leaving...?" The glint faded, and I watched as a hint of sadness tried to force it's way through the surface, but she held it back.

I shook my head in confusion, saying: "What do you mean?" Her softer features twitched...apparently, I'd hit a rather sore spot with her. I watched as she pushed her fear back, and at the same time, allowed a dangerous look of anger through.

"The Grigesque must pay for what they've done...after all, I am half human." The hatred in her eyes was almost intoxicating. After seeing their recordings of what had happened below on the Earth, I couldn't really say that I couldn't disagree with her fury-I even shared in some of it-but this was _her_ home world...she didn't just want to stop these people, she wanted them to hurt. She turned around and began making her way out of their make-shift command-center, but I had to keep her here; I have to ensure that she won't, at the very least, get us all killed seeking out her revenge.

"Wait!" I shout; she turns just before she can leave the bay, so I continue: "You never told me you're name." She grinned at the question, but she didn't waste any time answering it.

"Ziyal...My name commander Shelotskov, is Ziyal."

**xxxxxXXXXxxxxx**

[1] What Sasqua is talking about here, is basic network-transmission conversion methods, basically, how someone would use a specialized adapter for different types of data-transmission mediums. (i.e. communication between an optical, or light-based cable and a more traditional electrical or copper-cable (the same kind as most people use in their homes).

[2] A tauon is a very heavy version of an electron particle, with a reversed charge of about 1/2 of an electron, so it makes for a very base to convert two different technologies that use different computational systems.


End file.
